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J3y "BRICK" POMEROY. 



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LIFE OF "BRICK" POMEROY, with Steel Portrait, $1.50. 



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BY 

Carleton, Publisher, 
New York. 




cs-^Kn^t 



y^^,/^^ /7^/^x 



LIFE 



OF 



MARK M. POMEROY 

["brick" pomeeot, editor of the lacrosse, wis., democrat, 
and of the democrat, daily, new york city], 

A REPRESENTATIVE YOMG MAI OF AMERICA: 

HIS EARLY HISTORY, CHARACTER, AND PUBLIC SERVICES IN DEFENCE 

OF THE RIGHTS OF STATES, RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE, 

AND INTERESTS OF WORKING MEN. 

PREPARED FROM MATERIALS FURNISHED *BY MR. POMEROY AND OTHERS, 

By Mrs. MARY E. TUCKER. 



toitli a Steel portrait. 









tJ 



NEW YORK: ® 



G. IV. Carleton, Publisher. 

LONDON : S. LOW, SON & CO. 

M DCCC LXVIII. . 



Ekfe4- 






Entered according to Act of Confess, in the year 1863, by 

GEO. W. CARLETON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 



District of New York. 



The New York Printing Company, 
81, 83, and 85 Centre Street, 
New York. 



LETTER 

RECEIVED FROM HOX MARK M. POMEROT 

m ANSWER TO A REQUEST BY MRS. TUCKER FOR ASSISTANCE IN 

PREPARING A LIFE OP ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL 

LIVING JOURNALISTS AND AUTHORS. 



Office of the Democrat, 

New York, Sept 2d, 1868. 
Mrs. Mart E. Tucker : 

Dear Madam— Your note is a peculiar one, with a strange 
wish contained therein. That I have been successful as a jour- 
nalist is true, but I do not know that the public, with its ever- 
varying mood, would care to know of the one whose life you 
wish to take. There is nothing in it different from the history 
of other self-made men ; nothing of a startling nature that would 
please the public, that I know of. It is simply a plain history 
of a poor boy— a laborer— a hard-working man who has won 
success by battling for it, determined to win— the history of one 
who has been all his life a consistent laborer in behalf of the 
poor, the working-men, the honest men of his country. 

There are years of struggling, of toil, of trials, and disappoint- 
ments, but never of despair. Had I time I could give you 
hundreds of instances of fun, folly, and interest— of jokes, ad- 
ventures, and struggles, but the labors of the present Presiden- 



y ^ LETTER. 



tial campaign, in which I am so entirely engaged, prevent my 
furnishing you with the items desired. There are, however, with 
me in the office gentlemen who have known me from boyhood, 
who have been with me for years in dark hours and dangerous 
ones, who will furnish you items which may be of interest and 

of service to you. 

I have been too busy for the past few years writing the histoiy 
of others to think of my own. There are no objections to your 
engaging in the work you propose, and such aid as I can render, 
by telling you the history of my life, will be given cheerfully 
in hopes that others who are now as I once was, poor and 
almost friendless, before whom the clouds of life loom up, dark 
and forbidding-who are often tempted to throw themselves 
away by drink, dissipation, and recklessness-may gather cour- 
age and fight their destiny to an honorable success i* which no 
man is wronged, as I have done. - 

With best wishes for your success in this and all other lauda- 
ble works, I remain, with respect, 

Thine for the right, 

M. M. POMEROY. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. 

I. Bending the twig.-Why * people borrow papers.-""* 

Planting pumpkins.— Youthful oratory 9 

II. He hauls lumber—Goes into the candy-trade.-Re'- 
turns home.-Goes to Corning to apprentice him- 
self 

20 

III. Becomes a printer's boy 28 

IV. First lesson in printing o 2 

V. Fence-making for fun 37 

VI. Developments of journalistic ability 40 

VII. Boyish follie S .-Beer story.-Codnshery.-Three' ce- 
lebrities 

VIII. Mark falls in love.-How a joke teiininaied.-Goes 
to Canada.-Returns to Waverly and finds his lady- 
love married—He marries one he loves better. 61 

IX. Goes West to seek his fortune 71 

X He earns the name of < Brick.'-Goes "to Washington. 76 
XI. In which he establishes the renowned La Crosse 
Democrat 

XII. Mr.Pomeroy's ideas of justice.-His life 'is' attempt- 
ed.— He scorns to play the hypocrite 86 

XIII. Office of the La Crosse Democrat-Why he left La 

Crosse 103 

XIV. Success of the La Crosse Democrat-Milk and water 

evaporated by caustic 109 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHaP. page. 

XV. Treating of Mr. Pomeroy's manner of conducting a 

printing-office. — His kindness to his employes 113 

XVI. Why Mr. Pomeroy is popular as a writer 119 

XVII. A chapter of anecdotes 123 

XVIII. Organization of " The New York Democrat." — In- 
terview with Mr. J. Howard 133 

XIX. An author cannot he judged by his writings. — Mr. 

Pomeroy's ideas of Masonry 140 

XX. Difference of opinion in regard to the personal ap- 
pearance of ' Brick.' — Pomeroy a twin. — Praise 

from Mr. Greeley 146 

XXI. Mr. "Wells' description of a true orator. -Pomeroy 

as a Poet, Artist, Philosopher, and Actor 162 

XXII. As a popular orator 168 

XXIII. Specimens of Mr. Pomeroy's miscellaneous writings. 217 



LIFE OF 

MARK M. POMEROY. 



CHAPTER I. 



Bending the twig.— Why people borrow papers.— Planting pumpkins. 

Youthful oratory. 

In the month of March, 1837, on the door-stoop of an 
humble farm-house on Seely Creek, in the town of South- 
port, Chemung County, New York, was seated a small 
boy, in pinafore, reading the Life of Washington. 

The precocious child had previously read, with won- 
der and admiration, the Life of Franklin; and had just 
read the characteristic story about Washington and the 
cherry-tree. The little four-year old soul was charmed 
and delighted with the heroic perseverance and glorious 
success of Franklin ; and his heaven-born love of truth 
and justice was easily aroused to active sympathy with 
the free and truthful character of Washington, so strik- 
ingly illustrated in his refusing to tell a lie, to save him- 
self from punishment for cutting the cherry-tree. 

Yielding to the holy influence of the lives of Franklin 
and Washington upon his infant mind, the little philoso- 
pher, in a praiseworthy spirit of emulation, resolved 

1* 



10 LIFE OF 

to walk in their footsteps, and be guided by their 
principles. 

Like Franklin, he would some day be an honest 
printer; and like Washington, he would be a truthful, 
faithful defender of the liberties of the people against 
injustice, tyranny, and oppression. 

Just at this moment his aunt, or adopted mother, 
came in from the garden, where she had been trans- 
planting flowers. • 

"What have you been doing, Aunty?" asked the 
baby student. 

" Planting flowers ; and mark, you little lump of mis- 
chief, if you touch them 1 will whip you soundly : re- 
member, I am in earnest !" 

A 'simple request, kindly made, would have been sa- 
credly regarded, but the proud spirit of the child was 
aroused to rebellion by the ignominous threat. The 
aunt passed on to the house, and the " little lump of 
mischief" threw down his book, deliberately walked to 
the garden, touched with his tiny fingers each of the 
forbidden flowers, and quickly returned to his book. 

As his eye fell upon the work, he was reminded of the 
virtuous resolution he had formed, and with it came 
repentance for what he had done. So going boldly to 
his aunt, he told her he had touched every one of her 
flowers. The kind-meaning aunt was not blessed with 
the wisdom and forbearance of Washington's father, 
and so the little champion of truth was rewarded with 



MARK M. POMEROY. 11 

a whipping, and sent supperless to bed. As the little 
victim of circumstances sighed himself to sleep, his last 
waking thought was, " I don't care if I did get a whip- 
ping, I told the truth, and I'll tell it again. I will never 
tell a lie !" Ever since that memorable night, Mark M. 
Pomeroy has had for his motto — 

" Truth is omnipotent and must prevail.' 



•>i 



Time and Place of " Brick" Pomeroy's Birth. 

Mark M. Pomeroy was born in the little village of 
Lawrenceville, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, on Christ- 
mas day, a. d. 1833, shortly after the removal of his 
parents from Elmira, New York. Of his parents our 
sources of information are limited. His father was 
formerly a merchant in New York, and now resides in 
California. His mother died when he was only one year 
old. At her request, in case of, and soon after her death, 
the little brick was adopted by his uncle, S. M. White, 
his mother's brother, and son of General Gates White, 
of Revolutionary memor}', who resided on Seely Creek, 
in the town of Southport, Chemung County, New York. 
For seventeen years Mark lived with his uncle on his 
small farm, and assisted him in all the multifarious du- 
ties of a New England farmer, including " the thousand 
and one" indispensables in the feminine department, em- 
braced in the comprehensive New England provincial- 
ism " Chores." 



12 LIFE OF 

Dunne the winter months Mark was allowed to go to 
school, where he learned very fast, although he was 
more given to mischief than study. 

Serious objections are sometimes made to the con- 
struction of Mr. Pomeroy's sentences. Should he fail 
to write grammatically, it is attributable to the fact 
that he never studied Grammar an hour in his life. He 
once went "clear through Olney's Geography," and 
succeeded in reaching the Rule of Three in arithmetic. 

CD 

He was a good reader from his infancy — a good speller, 
a fine mental arithmetician, and with all, possessed a 
wonderful memory. His lessons at school were acquired 
by mere reading — the rest of his time he devoted to 
reading:, writing, etc. His thirst for knowledge was in- 
satiable, and to gratify it, he would borrow papers, 
novels, and books of general information ; when he 
could get nothing else, he would study the Bible, which 
he has read many times through. 

When very young, Mark became deeply interested in 
a story in the Elmira Gazette, a newspaper, to which 
his uncle was a subscriber. To his annoyance the story 
was not completed in the number before him, but said 
" concluded in our next." Mark scratched his head. 
" Our next," thought he ; " well, that must be Mr. 
Knapp. He is the next who takes the paper," a gentle- 
man who lived some distance from his uncle's. In his 
childish mind, he thought that it was a funny plan not 
to put the whole story in a paper, but to have a part 



MARK M. P0MEE0Y. 13 

of it in one, and a part in another; but he deckled that 
that was why people borrowed papers, and so off he 
started after dark, when his work was finished, and bor- 
rowed the paper from his obliging neighbor, who won- 
dered what the urchin could want with it, — the more, as 
he knew the boy's uncle was, like himself, a subscriber. 
To his intense disgust, he found it contained the same 
portion of the story he had already read, and then the 
truth flashed upon him — it must mean the next number 
of the paper, and not the paper in the next house. 

The teachers liked his free, independent sj)irit, and 
feared to offend him ; for, although he rarely resented 
punishment when inflicted upon himself, he always de- 
fended the weak, or any child he saw was to be unjustly 
punished. One day a little girl laughed aloud during 
study-hours. The teacher called her to his side, and 
asked why she laughed. The child declined answering 
the question. The teacher placed his hand upon the 
birch, but before he could raise it, Mark stepped for- 
ward, and said — ■ 

" Do not punish her, sir ; I made her laugh." 

" How did you make her laugh ?" asked the teacher. 

There was a titter among the boys, as Mark told that 
he chanced to be sitting by a darkey (for whom Mark 
never had any particular love, even in feis youthful days, 
but would always defend if he saw any cruelty threat- 
ened), and thought he would see how a negro would 
look whitewashed, so he chalked his hand with the 



14 LIFE OF 

blackboard chalk, and then placed the five fingers on 
the negro's cheek. The effect can be easily imagined. 

As the teacher was preparing to punish Mark, the 
larger boys came forward to defend him ; and the teacher 
concluded that " discretion was the better part of valor," 
and forgave him. 

While at school he Was a general favorite, for he was 
always willing to assist any dull boy in his lesson. In 
truth, half the compositions in the school were written 
by the embryo editor of the La Crosse Democrat. 

Possessing no fortune, with none in expectancy but 
the fruits of his own labors, his pursuits on his uncle's 
humble farm tended, as we believe they were providen- 
tially designed, to mould the pure material of the boy 
to the stature of the man — a genuine brick, worthy of a 
place in the Temple of Liberty; which, we trust, will 
forever withstand all the open assaults and secret sallies 
of the Radical enemies of constitutional freedom. 

In the fruit season, Mark would rise before daylight, 
do the farm chores, and go to the woods and gather 
berries, with which he would walk, or catch a ride with 
some teamsters, to Elmira, a distance of eight miles, and 
sell or exchange them for provisions to aid in the sup- 
port of his uncle's family. Many old citizens of Elmira 
remember the now successful journalist of the age as 
the thin " little white-haired berry boy." 

He became very tired of this routine farm-life, and 
decided to take steps toward freeing himself from 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 15 

drudgery; so next day, after disposing of his stock of 
berries, he quietly walked into a printing-office by which 
he had to pass on his way through the town. With 
a brave heart he ascended the stairs which led to the 
printing-office, and, upon reaching the top, he found 
himself in the midst of a number of men sitting upon 
high stools setting type away for dear life. One of the 
men saw the white head, and demanded, in a surly tone, 
" What do you want ?" 

" Nartbin', sir," timidly articulated Mark, and down 
he went, thinking he would postpone being a printer 
until some more propitious moment. 

He was brought up, under strong religious restraints, 
in a Presbyterian family, and was a close student at 
Bible-class and Sunday-school, and was, from his youth 
until the present writing, a hater of long sermons. 

Once, while listening to one of these long, wearing-out 
sermons, he fell asleep, and awoke, as he thought, just 
as the preacher pronounced Amen. Like a shot he stood 
up to receive the blessing. To his astonishment no one 
arose, for the sermon was not ended. To cover his con- 
fusion he looked intently out of a window which was 
before him, as if he saw something wonderful. Of course, 
every one else in the house looked the same way, and 
Mark sat down, fully awakened by the shock. 

When Mark was about ten years old, he was blessed 
with a boy cousin. Before this time he had been the 
only baby in the house, and a mischievous one at that. 



16 LIFE OF 

If there was a chance for mischief, he seized it. If the 
cat came about to bother him at meal-time, he would 
fix a little mustard in a piece of meat, and give it to her, 
who, on finding her lunch red hot, so to speak, would 
sneeze and scamper off, much to the delight of the un- 
feline torment. The idea of making things red hot for 
those he did not like, seems to have come to him early. 
He had the cat and dog, and playthings of childhood to 
amuse with, until his little cousin was born, when 
there was joy in the house for all. It became Mark's 
duty to look out for the baby, to rock it to sleep, and to 
amuse the little one while awake, so that its mother 
could attend to her household duties. If the child slept, 
he would tickle its nose with a feather, to awaken it, 
when of course it would cry, and its mother would re- 
lieve him of his charge, and off he would scamper to 
play. 

When the child grew older, the warmest feeling of 
love existed between Mark and himself, and they would, 
if possible, shield each other from punishment. " Did 
Mark do this? "No !" little Gates would answer, and 
Mark would always take the blame for the pranks of 
Gates. 

When Gates was quite a large boy, his mother, as 
punishment for some of his pranks, put him to bed, 
locked him up in his room, and then went out to spend 
the afternoon with some of her neighbors. As soon as 
she was well out of sight, Mark opened the window and 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 17 

pulled out the little prisoner, who assisted him in cut- 
ting and piling wood, and played with him until almost 
sundown, when Mark seeing his aunt approach, put the 
boy in the window, told him to jump into bed and be 
asleep when his mother came in. "Has Gates been 
up ?" asked Mrs. White when she entered the house. 

" I have not heard him cry," answered Mark. 

The anxious mother found her youngjiopeful sleeping 
the innocent sleep of childhood — that is, to all ap- 
pearances. 

Until he was nearly grown, Mark was a regular som- 
nambulist, and many and many a time have his relatives 
watched him in the middle of the night get up, go in 
the pantry and help himself to the eatables, and then 
retire to his room. In the morning he was entirely un- 
conscious of the events of the night. Once when he 
had been very ill for some time, he awoke in the middle 
of flhe nieht, and to his astonishment, found himself 
sitting on the steps of a neighbor with only his night- 
shirt on. He ran home through the snow, created a 
perspiration, and in the morning awoke in better con- 
dition than he had been in for days. 

One day Mr. White set Mark to planting pumpkin- 
seed in the corn-hills in the field. Mark had borrowed 
a novel of one of the neighbors, and, instead of doing 
his work, he sat down under a tree, read his book 
through, and then went to sleep. When he awoke it 
was past noon, and not one particle of his task done 



18 LIFE OF 

There set the half-bushel of pumpkin-seed, a memento 
of his misspent time. Taking the bucket which con- 
tained the seed, he carried it to the creek which ran by 
the field, and emptied half the contents into the stream, 
then taking the remainder back, he planted a while, but 
finding the quantity did not decrease fast enough, he 
took a pint or two, and nicely deposited them under a 
large stone, and then went home, contented with the 
exploits of the day. 

As Mr. White returned that afternoon, he chanced to 
stop on a bridge which crossed the creek nearly a mile 
below his field, and in looking down he saw a number 
of pumpkin seeds floating down stream. 

Knowing Mark's proclivities, he felt that he had been 
up to mischief during his absence, and, following the 
stream, he found he was correct in his surmises, for he 
found the seed in large quantities just where Mark had 
deposited them. He then tracked the boy, by his bare 
feet, everywhere over the field except where he ought 
to have been. Mark was at supper when Mr. White 
came in, and looked innocent enough. 

" Have you stuck in all the seed ?" he asked. 

" Yes, sir," said Mark. 

" Did you have enough ?" 

" Yes, sir, plenty." 

" Too many ?" 

" Oh, no, sir," 

" Then go and get me some good apple-switches." 



MARK M. POMEROY. 19 

The switches were cut, and Mark put in apple-pie 
order. In vain he declared that " he did stick 'em in. 
He stuck him in the creek." He needed the whipping, 
and he got it. Nor was that the last of the pumpkin 
crop for him ; for, when Mr. White went to plough his 
corn, he discovered a stone which was beautifully 
wreathed with the delicate tendrils of innumerable 
pumpkin vines. Upon moving the stone, he found at 
least two pints of his choice seed ; and Mark, in punish- 
ment, had to make three bows, which he declares was 
harder than three whippings, for it was always difficult 
for him to bow to any man. 

While still very young, he would spend hours lec- 
turing to an audience of nails or splinters stuck in the 
earth, and would become intensely excited at some fan- 
cied retort from his hard-headed hearers, to which he 
would reply with all the dignity of an accomplished 
orator. Little thought the friends who laughed at his 
boyish vagaries, that he was only giving expression to 
the heaven-bestowed spirit within him, and training him- 
self for the conflict in which he is now w T ielding his battle- 
axe with the immutable will and resistless power of a 
conqueror, against the hireling supporters of radical 
fanaticism, " treason, stratagems, and spoils." 



20 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER II. 

He hauls lumber.— Goes into the candy trade.— Returns home.— Goes to 

Corning to apprentice himself. 

When Mark was about fourteen years old, Mr. White 
proposed that he should visit Mill Creek settlement, 
some miles distant from home, and should spend the 
summer in hauling lumber on the railroad for shipment. 
Mark gladly assented, and Mr. White furnished the 
team. For the first day the enterprising boy succeeded 
nobly, but in the second, the harness, which was poor 
and old, gave way, and he had to spend hours in repair- 
ing the damage. Again he had a successful day, and 
then the wasron broke down ; but Mark was not to be 
discouraged, he worked well and steadily, but sometimes 
lost a whole day from his hauling labor, on account of 
broken harness and wagon. He however kept on, and 
would, when any part of the wagon broke, replace it 
with a new, strong article. The result was, that, at the 
end of the summer, Mark went home with twenty-one 
dollars in money, a new harness and wagon, and a clear 
conscience. 

"Well done, my boy," said the well-pleased uncle. 
" You have done much better than I expected, and you 
are a faithful, honest lad." 

The next year Mark obtained a situation with a rela- 



MARK M. POMEROY. 21 

tive, who was a druggist in Wellsboro', Tioga county, 
Pennsylvania, who allowed him the privilege, in pay for 
services to be rendered in the drugstore, of having a 
stock of merchandise on his own account. 

The boy had nine dollars, the earnings of his lifetime, 
which he invested in candy, which he placed in a corner 
of the store, in a few little jars and boxes. Mark was 
especially fond of candy, and could not refrain from 
tasting every time he passed his part of the store ; and, 
being a generous youth, he frequently invited his friends 
to partake with him. 

He always had an eye for beauty; and if a pretty 
girl wanted to buy a small quantity of his stock of 
sweets, he would gallantly present her with the candy, 
and beg her to keep the money. The consequence was, 
that the candy investment grew smaller and smaller, 
and beautifully less ; but during the whole time he con- 
tinued in the candy business, he never again invested to 
the extent of his original, and in a few months literally 
ate and treated himself out of business. 

During the time Mark was with Mr. Roy, the drug- 
gist, he employed all his leisure moments in reading, at 
least all he did not spend in mischief. He delighted in 
studying human nature, and would frequently enter into 
conversation with any odd specimen of the g/bnus ho?no, 
only to become familiar with character. 

His early ambition to become a printer and politician 
still lingered in his heart, and he longed for the time 



22 LIFE OF 

when manhood would give him the right and power to 
follow the inclination of his own mind, and assume the 
responsibility of his own acts. 

While on the farm, and during his life at the candy 
business, Mark was strictly honest, and attended to his 
business ; his creed was, " Whatsoever thy hands find to 
do, do it with all thy might." 

Growing weary of this life of comparative inaction, 
Mark returned to his uncle's farm, where he remained 
only a few months. 

For sixteen years the boy had endured a life of com- 
parative drudgery — endured only, for he was ever rest- 
less, and his ambition urged him to move onward and 
upward. Then came the intense yearnings and desire 
for a change in his mode of life. In the Spring of 1850, 
young Mark determined to launch his boat upon the sea 
of life, and to man it himself, for, by that time, he had 
learned the lesson of the god whose assistance the 
countryman implored when his wagon-wheel became 
imbedded in the mud. 

" Child of earth," said the god, " place your own 
shoulder to the wheel, and then stronger powers will 
come to your assistance." 

Mr. and Mrs. White feeling that they, in their hum- 
ble circumstances, could do but little for the future wel- 
fare of the boy they loved so dearly, gave a tearful 
consent and their blessing, which was all they could 
give, telling Mark, should he fail in his search for work, 



MARK M. POME ROY. 23 

to return to them at once, that he should always be 
welcome to their board. 

Gathering his valuables together, he found it con- 
sisted of one suit of clothes, two shirts, his mother's 
Bible, and a few little keepsakes from boyish friends. 
He bade adieu to the scenes of his childhood — not regret- 
fully, for he had been a faithful boy, and had always 
cheerfully performed the tasks allotted to him, but joy- 
fully, for his spirit told him he had powers capable of 
higher pursuits, in a broader and more elevated plan 
than any he had been permitted to enter. 

He walked on until the sun told him it was twelve 
o'clock, and then sitting down by the roadside he took 
from his pocket the' lunch which his ever-thoughtful 
aunt had provided him. 

When he had finished eating he then bethought him- 
self that he had not marked out any definite course of 
life, except that he would become a printer, and in time, 
if he could, own and edit a paper. After walking some 
distance further he saw a sign-post, upon which was 
marked " Corning ;" and it was a welcome sign to him, 
for there he was going to apprentice himself as a type- 
setter and devil to some printer who would instruct 
hin in the trade and pay his expenses. And if not in 
Corning, still farther west would he go to begin the 
battle of life. 

Just at five o'clock the weary and foot-sore wanderer 
reached his place of destination. 



24 LIFE OF 

Friendless and homeless, we can well imagine his 
sensations as he walked through the village-streets, and 
looked into each face, hoping to see the "something" 
which would endow him with courage to make known 
his wants. Still young Mark did not regret the step he 
had taken. With his mind's eye he saw young Frank- 
lin, as he entered Philadelphia, tired and hungry, and 
with only a single dollar in money, and he thought if 
Franklin, who was only a poor, half-educated boy, could 
carve for himself, unassisted, such a glorious future, he 
certainly could accomplish something. 

Upon inquiry, Mark was directed to the office of the 
Journal, which was then owned* and edited by Mr. 
Thomas Messenger. The Journal is now conducted by 
George W. Pratt, whose opinion of Mr. Pomeroy we 
give below, taken from an August, 1868, issue of his 
prosperous paper. * 

" M. M. Pomeroy has established a daily newspaper in 
New York, called 'The Democrat.' The terms are 
six dollars per year in advance. Single copies can be 
had at Corbin's News Office, Corning. Over thirty- 
two thousand copies of the first number were sold, which 
is unparalleled in the history of journalism, and estab- 
lishes the fact that the new organ of the Democracy is 
to live and flourish in spite of the Herald and World. 
It is the size of the New York Sun, folio in form, and 
contains seven columns to the page. It would be a haz- 
ardous enterprise for most men to undertake to estab- 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 25 

lish a Democratic daily paper in the city, but ' Brick' 
is equal to the emergency. He claims to have a suffi- 
cient ' income to indulge in such a luxury,' and that is 
doubtless correct. His peculiar style is adapted to the 
rough Democracy of New York, and he enters upon his 
work with an eye to business. His managing editor is 
Joseph Howard, Jr., a man of decided talent, and proba- 
bly proud of being the author of the forged proclama- 
tion, professing to be from President Lincoln, which 
sent gold " kiting," and created a panic, and which also 
was the cause, we believe, of the World office being shut 
up for one day by the military, for publishing the same. 
His chief assistant editor is Judge Flanders, who, we 
believe, was sent to Fort Lafayette for disloyalty, and 
who is a more venomous copperhead than ' Brick' him- 
self. With such leaders the paper is admirably adapted 
to make room for itself in New York. It will undoubt- 
edly be a pecuniary success, and take much of the city 
circulation of the News and World. It is too much to 
hope that it will be more decent than the La Crosse 
Democrat. The same coarseness, falsehood, vitupera- 
tion, obscenity, and disloyalty which has made that 
sheet notorious and given it the enormous circulation of 
about three hundred thousand copies weekly, will doubt- 
less characterize this daily paper. Pomeroy announces 
to his readers that he is no ' carpet-bagger,' but has 
come to stay. He has the advantage of any one else in 
establishing such a paper. Since his branch office was 

2 



26 LIFE OF 

opened in New York, he has had several pages of the 
La Crosse Democrat set in type and stereotyped by the 
papier-mache process, and sent to La Crosse by express, 
where, with the forms there set up, the Weekly is 
printed. He receives from La Crosse stereotypes of the 
forms there set up in type, and thus prints an edition in 
New York, which is & facsimile of the La Crosse edition. 
The latter supplies regular subscribers. Eastern cam- 
paign subscribers and news offices are supplied from 
New York, thus saving express charges. Therefore the 
expense of his setting up a daily is much reduced, as 
several pages will be used for the siamese-twin Weekly ; 
and as it is an afternoon paper, the burden is not heavy 
enough to swamp ' Brick' even if the New York Democ- 
racy is tardy in rallying to his support. The paper is 
printed at the Sun office, so that the presses which make 
the Sun rise in the morning send forth the fiery Demo- 
crat at evening. It reveals the extraordinary business 
capacity of Poheroy, that he can "grow" within five 
years from being the publisher of a weekly with a few 
hundred subscribers, to that of owning two dailies, fifteen 
hundred miles apart, and a weekly which has the largest 
circulation of any political newspaper in the world. 
The necessity of enlarging constantly the business, get- 
ting fast presses and then faster ones as needed, and 
grasping the details of an enterprise of such magni- 
tude, must be a tremendous tax upon the mind ; but 
when to all this is added the burden of writing so much 



MARK M. POMEROY. 27 

or so varied vile political and scurrillous matter, it is 
surprising "that one small head" can stand the pres- 
sure. The La Crosse Democrat is a disgrace to jour- 
nalism. It is an infamous newspaper, unfit for the fam- 
ily, and a foe to the peace and prosperity of the country, 
and also to political honesty or virtue. The New York 
Daily Democrat will probably bear the same impress. 
But however odious in sentiment or villainous in lan- 
guage, there is a field for it in New York, and it will 
take due care to cultivate it. We admire the remarka- 
ble pluck and tenacity of ' Brick' Pomeroy, though we 
thus write. No newspaper proprietor ever showed 
more ability to plan or capacity to execute. 

" Seventeen years ago he was employed in this office, 
earning five dollars per month and his board. Now he is 
probably worth one-third of a million of dollars. He was 
offered $100,000 to advocate Chase's nomination at the 
Democratic Convention, with a like sum if nominated. 
He refused, knowing: that the readers of the La Crosse 
Democrat hated the "nigger" too intensely, but the 
offer showed his power as the Great Mogul of the cop- 
perhead wing. He threatened to bolt if Chase was 
nominated, and thus, though he lost Pendleton, he kept 
off Judge Chase, and gave Seymour the chance to run. 



28 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER III. 

Becomes a printer's boy. 

Mr. Messenger and his assistant were in the act of 
closing the office for the night, when they were startled 
by a most singular apparition which, unannounced, pre- 
sented itself before them. 

A rough, white-haired, bashful, awkward-looking boy, 
clad in homespun, whose hands seemed always in the 
way, judging by his nervous movement of them, and 
whose feet seemed much too large for the remainder 
of his body. In his hand he held a small bundle, and 
as he, with native politeness lifted his hat, disclosed a 
large, finely formed head, but covered with hair of the 
most peculiar indescribable hue. His light gray eyes 
had an honest, fearless look, while his mouth gave every 
indication of his intense love of fun. 

" Well, my lad, what can I do for you ?" kindly 
asked Mr. Messenger. 

" Give me work if you please, sir," answered Mark. 

" Work !" laughed Mr. M. " What can you do ?" 

" Anything, sir !" 

" Anything ! very good. Can you cut wood, draw 
water, and do other chores ?" 

" Yes, sir, I can ; but — I don't like to." 



MAEK M. POMEROT. 29 

"Frank! certainly," said Mr. Messenger. "Well, 
what would you like to do ?" 

" I would like, if you please, to learn the art of print- 
ing, and I am willing to do anything connected with the 

trade." 

" Hem ! What pay would you expect, young man ?" 

" That question you must decide, sir ; for, I suppose, 

you were once in the same position yourself that I am 

now, and you know what wages you had, and what you 

would have liked." 

Mark knew, even then, how to speak to the heart, 
and as he spoke the book of memory unclosed its 
pages ; and Mr. Messenger thought when he too searched 
for work, and he determined to befriend the lad, and so 

he said: 

" Truly spoken, my boy ! but suppose we do not need 
your services, will you return to Seely Creek* where 
you say you have walked from to-day ?" 

" No, sir ; certainly not ; I will go to Bath, the next 
village, will make a trial there, and if I do not succeed, 
I will go on west until I do." 

" Well spoken, my lad !" said the kind-hearted editor. 
" It is too late for you to go any further to-night, so go 
home with me, and I will give you supper and a night's 
lodging, for you certainly look as if you were tired 
out." 

Mrs. Messenger received the homeless lad kindly, but 
often, during the evening, Mark saw that she could 



30 LIFE OF 

scarcely refrain from laughing at the odd-looking boy 
her husband had brought home, and he thought to him- 
self, that he did not wonder at her mirth, for he cer- 
tainly was an ungainly looking creature. 

That night, after they retired, Mark heard the worthy 
couple talking until a late hour, and many a merry peal 
of laughter floated up to the room they had given him ; 
and even the words, 

" What shall we do with such a fright ?" came to 
him. 

The answer. — " Well, he is rather odd-looking, but he 
seems to be a well-informed, good-conditioned, industri- 
ous lad, and if I find out he left home with the consent 
of his friends, I don't know but what I can find use for 
him in the office ; and he certainly will be of assistance 
to you, my dear" — served as a narcotic, and soon Mark 
slept the sweet, contented sleep of youth. 

Early in the morning he found his way to the kitchen, 
helped fix the fire, brought water for the kitchen-maid, 
and made himself so useful in various ways, that the 
good wife heard, with feelings of pleasure, that her 
husband had decided to keep the boy, and at least give 
him a trial. 

During his stay in Corning, Mrs. Messenger was one 
of his best friends, and still speaks of Mark in terms 
of affection. She was a friend indeed to him, and took 
the place of a mother, and we know the then awkward 
boy — the now popular man of wealth and position — 



MARK M. POMEROY. 31 

regards her as one of his best and dearest friends, and 
often speaks in kindest terms of the good man and wife 
who helped him thus early on the road he had determined 
to travel. 



32 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER IV. 

First lesson in printing. 

After breakfast Mark accompanied Mr. Messenger 
to the Journal office, and on their way. Mr. Messenger, 
desirous of becoming better acquainted with the boy, 
questioned Mark of his parents, education, bringing up, 
and asked if he was afraid to work. He also wi#hed to 
know if he had any business-men friends in Corning ; to 
which question Mark replied : 

" I have not any now, but I expect to have, if I re- 
main here any length of time," which answer Mr. Mes- 
senger thought very good. He then asked if Mark 
wished to become a printer, or a loafer, and upon 
receiving a satisfactory reply, he stated, if he would 
promise to learn well the printing business, and become 
a good printer and would agree to do honor to the 
fraternity, to his teacher, and to himself, he would give 
him the situation. 

On reaching the office, finding no work there suitable 
for a new hand, Mr. Messenger set Mark to sawing 
wood, a cord of which lay piled at the office-door. 
i He went about the task cheerfully, but he could not 
refrain from thinking that he had a plenty of that style 
of "printing" to do on his uncle's farm, and he cer- 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 33 

tainly expected a different kind when he walked so 
many miles in search of it. 

While engaged in his work, a large dog came upon 
the premises and commenced a series of persecutions 
upon a small pet dog belonging to Mr. Messenger. 
"Always protect the weak," is still one of Mark's 
mottoes, so he quietly laid down his saw and took from 
a pile of rubbish near him an old tin pail which he, by 
dint of persuasion and force, fastened to the tail of the 
persecutor. 

Of course the dog vacated the premises with all pos- 
sible speed; and did not soon annoy the small dog with 
his unpleasant attentions. The old adage, that " Satan 
finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," was not 
exactly applicable to our young friend at this period of 
his existence, for he, though always at work, found or 
took time to be into all manner of mischief. 

Before he had finished his task, he noticed in the lot 
back of the printing-office a new milch-cow ; by her a 
calf lay with its feet tied. There was no law in Corning 
at that time for the prevention of cruelty to animals. 
Soon an Irishwoman came from a little shanty close by, 
untied the calf, and allowed it to take a small portion 
of the milk. She stood and watched it awhile, then, 
thinking the calf had had enough for ordinary purposes 
of a veal in perspective, she determined to take a portion 
of the milk for family use ; so she choked the calf off, 
tied its legs together, and left it lying on the ground, 

2* 



34 LIFE OF 

while she went into the House for a pail. No sooner had 
she disappeared than Mark ran into the office, and bor- 
rowed a knife of one of the apprentices, slipped over the 
fence, cut the strings which heid the little prisoner, and 
ran back to the wood-pile in time to see the calf enjoy 
its interrupted breakfast. In a few moments the woman 
came out with the pail, and a more exasperated daugh- 
ter of Erin's Green Isle never was seen than was that 
woman, who shook her fists in every direction, and swore 
vengeance on the " spalpeen" who cut the strings off the 
calf's legs, if she ever caught hold of his hair. It is 
needless to say that Mark kept his head and hair out of 
her way. 

Mr. Messenger was a witness to this exploit and the 
dog scrape as well, and remarked to Mr. Lombard, the 
foreman of the office, that the boy was full of fun, and 
would make a good printer. And from that time he 
was a favorite with Mr. Messenger, his family, and the 
employes of the office. 

As a compositor, Mark learned very rapidly, and soon 
became as expert in type-setting as the best printer in 
the State ; and as a pressman, working at the hand-press, 
in less than a year he had the reputation of being the 
fastest and best pressman in that vicinity. 

Mr. Messenger lived in a small house situated upon a 
hillside ; and soon after Mark engaged to work for him, 
his wife asked if " Mark" could not stay at home for one 
day, to work in the garden and weed the onion-beds. 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 35 

Mr. Messenger willingly consented, and asked Mark if 
he could do that kind of work. He replied, " I can, sir, 
but I never get mad with a man if he don't set me at it ; 
and besides, I am afraid I cannot tell onions from grass, 
nor weeds from vegetables." 

Mr. Messenger and his wife laughed, and said that he 
was a poor farmer's boy if he could not. 

Mr. Messenger went to the office, leaving Mark to 
work in the garden. During the forenoon he hoed pota- 
toes, and in the afternoon devoted himself to weeding 
onion-beds ; and, in Mark's own words, " A meaner work 
was never imposed upon a boy." 

A tea-party at the house kept Mrs. Messenger in the 
front parlor, and he had no one to overlook him while 
at work. When night came, Mr. Messenger returned, 
and, as he passed through the garden to see what prog- 
ress Mark had made, the humorist was peeping out of a 
crack in the wood-shed, to see the effect of his day's 
work. 

The hoeing had been done well, very well ; but, when 
Mr. Messenger examined the onion-beds, he found that 
from the seven beds of onions every onion had been 
pulled. Onoe and awhile he found a tuft of clover, 
which was left to prove that Mark could not tell weeds 
from onions. Taking warning from experience, Mr. 
Messenger concluded that Mark did not make " weeding 
out onions" a profitable business to him, and so next 
day Mark was respectfully invited to take his place in 



36 LIFE OP 

the printing-office, and another boy was sent to do this 
unj)leasant work. 

After Pomeroy had been in the office some time, he 
was one day sent down to the depot on business. A 
warm-looking, freshly-imported Irish boy jumped off the 
cars, and asked Mark where he could get some water. 

" I'll show you," said Mark, leading him some dis- 
tance from the cars, for he saw that Patrick was a real 
original jewel from the Emerald Isle, and he wanted to 
study him for a few days. 

Sure enough the cars left, much to the distress of the 
stranger, who was going out West with a party of 
friends to work on a railroad. But it could not be 
helped ; and Mark, anxious to make all the amends in 
his power for his practical joke, took the boy home, and 
turned him over to the tender mercies of Mrs. Messenger, 
who was glad to accept his services, as Mark at that 
time was so busy in the office that he could be of but 
little service to her in the domestic line. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 37 



CHAPTER V. 

Fence-making for fun. 

Mrs. Messenger's house was so situated, that the 
back yard and garden were exposed to prying eyes of 
curious neighbors, to her great annoyance. Mark see- 
ing her trouble, and appreciating it, offered to build her 
a fence, with the help of Patrick, to which proposition 
Mr. Messenger gladly assented. And having occasion 
to so from home to be absent a week, and the business 
of the printing-office being somewhat dull, he told Mark 
he might do the work on the fence while he was away. 

"How hicrh shall I build it?" asked Mark. 

" As high as you think proper," was the reply. " Here 
is an order on the proprietor of a saw-mill, and you can 
get lumber to build it as high as the house ; only be 
certain and build a tight board fence." 

As soon as Mr. Messenger was well out of sight our 
humorist went to work. Digging good deep holes, he 
and his assistant placed the posts therein — good high 
posts Mark selected. They made a high, close fence of 
boards, nailed to the cross-rods, endwise. The boards 
were twelve feet long, which, nailed to the wide base 
boards, made a fence fifteen feet high, causing the little 
garden to resemble more an amphitheatre or a square, 



38 LIFE OF 

than it did a place to grow onions, squashes, melons, 
and other vegetables. 

Mrs. Messenger enjoyed the joke ; but how Mr. Mes- 
senger would look upon it they did not know. So, with 
fear and trembling, Mark watched for him on the morn- 
ing he was expected. From a window Mark saw him 
approach his dwelling. He walked soberly along, until, 
happening to lift his eyes, he saw the new fence. He 
stopped — looked again, as if he could not realize where 
he was — then, suddenly remembering that Mark was to 
build a fence during his absence, he put his hands to his 
sides, and laughed long and heartily. 

" Come down, Mark," called Mrs. Messenger, who was 
also watching the effect upon her husband. " No fear 
of danger when Mr. Messenger laughs." 

" Messenger's fence" was, for-- a long time, an eyesore 
to the neighbors, and a matter of curiosity to all passers- 
by, who thought the fence was the sides of some new 
temple, or some political wigwam — no one knew what. 
None enjoyed the joke more than did Mr. Messenger; it 
seemed as if he would never tire laughing at it ; and he 
remarked, " If that boy ever attains as high a position 
in life as he has built the fence, it will be by the aid of 
a rope." 

._ Was Mr. Messenger's prophecy correct ? or has not 
Mr. Pomeroy attained as high a position as an editor as 
it is possible for a man to reach ? 

In those days it was the fashion in country printing- 



MAEK M. POMEROY. 39 

offices to send boys off on foolish errands, and "Brick" 
determined that he would endure nothing of the kind. 
On one occasion he was sent to a hardware store for 
a quart of "editorial oil." The foreman of the office, 
while making his forms ready for the press, despatched 
Mark on this errand, with instructions to return imme- 
diately, and to bring a " quart of editorial oil, in the 
original package,'' and also "a couple of italic hand- 



saws." 



" Brick" went down stairs, borrowed a fish-pole and 
line, started to the river, where he spent the day in 
fishing, returning only at night, after the town had been 
ransacked to learn his whereabouts (as he was very 
much needed in the office to roll), but bringing, as his 
apology, a nice string of fish for Mr. Messenger's table, 
which proved, indeed, " editorial oil," and so smoothed 
the feelings of Mr. Messenger at the turn the joke had 
taken against the foreman, that he forgave Mark's ab- 
sence from the office, and counselled the foreman to quit 
attempting to play pranks upon a " green country-boy," 
for he certainly got the worst of it. 



40 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

Developments of journalistic ability. 

Mark remained with Mr. Messenger nearly two years, 
acting as type-setter and " devil," by which suggestive 
name he was commonly called, and which name he well 
deserved, for he was in all kinds of mischief. 

The Corning people looked upon him as a sort of 
mirth-creating pest, whose mischief was so tempered 
with justice, mercy, and fun, that they could not punish 
the perpetrator, however sensibly they might feel his 
jokes. 

He organized the boys of Corning in foraging parties 
for cornfield raids, and in the morning would bestow 
the result of his expedition upon some poor family. 

He would visit the gardens of the rich, where he 
would "confiscate" fruit, vegetables, etc., which he 
would give to the poor and sick. 

Many a time large packages o*f grapes, and other 
fruit, have been found at the door of some invalid, left 
there by the "devil" who would go on his way rejoicing 
in his quiet manner at the thoughts of the cooling effect 
he imagined the fruit would have upon the feverish 
palate of the sick one. 

Mr. Pomeroy's career as a journalist, we may say 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 41 

commenced with his infancy. When but a child at 
school he would keep a record on his slate of the inci- 
dents of the school, and of the tricks and performances 
of the scholars. Would write for an imaginary paper 
in his copy-book — using his copy-book for that purpose 
rather than the improvement of his chirography. The 
writing of compositions for children on almost any and 
every topic, describing incidents real and unreal, natu- 
ral and unnatural, sketches of fact and fancy, was a 
habit which seemed to have grown with his growth till 
it became a part of his existence. 

When an apprentice in a printing-office, he furnished 
very many of the items of local interest about town, and 
wrote a great many little squibs and sketches for that 
paper. Under assumed names and various noms-de- 
plume, he wrote sketches and poetry for other papers, 
and wrote page after page, and quire after quire of 
manuscript, till he had at the time he entered the printing- 
office as journeyman, accumulated a full ream of this 
stuff, which he burned as of not sufficient account to 
preserve. Some of the pieces which he thus wrote are 
said, by his friends who saw them at the time, to have 
given evidence of more than ordinary powers of sar- 
casm, illustration, and forcibility. His father for a long 
time had serious objections to his being a printer, and 
wished him to be a merchant, citing the great mer- 
chants of the country and the wonderful field there 
opened for a man of energy and ambition. The prin- 



42 LIFE OF 

cipal objection his father had to his embarking upon 
the printing business was that the business was so pro- 
verbially poor that all connected with it seemed" to be 
habitually beggars. It is almost an impossibility to 
pick up a newspaper without finding in it a plea for 
subscribers to bring to the office some article of food to 
keep the editor from starving, or some urgent dun or 
request for the subscribers to come forth and rescue 
them from poverty and the hands of the sheriff. His 
father insisted upon it that printers were poor, and they 
had not the respect shown them that other people had. 
If the business was good, printers would not be such 
beggars. If the business was not good, no man of sense 
would engrave i n it. 

The boy insisted upon it that the fault was with those 
who begged, not with the public. That if a man made 
a good newspaper and adopted the same business rules 
in conducting it that merchants or others did, that he 
would succeed, and as he had a natural inclination for 
that, and a longing desire to connect himself with the 
press, that he might criticise men, that he might under- 
stand that which was good, condemn that which was 
wrong, and write and print matters of fact, and of in- 
terest in hopes of helping to educate the boys of the 
country, that he would become a printer. On his entering 
the office at Corning, it was his boast that the time would 
come when he would own a printing-office in the city of 
New York, which city he had never seen at that time, 



MARK M. POMEROY. 43 

and which office would be the most extensive of any in 
the United States. The boy said that he had been 
taught that where there was a will there was a way, 
and that he believed in the truth of the adage. That he 
had heard of Mr. Greeley's success, and Mr. Bennett's 
success, and of the success of a few other journalists of 
the country, and told Mr. Messenger, the proprietor, and 
Mr. Lombard, the foreman of the office at that time, 
that they would live to see him editing a newspaper of 
larger circulation than any newspaper, and that he 
would before his death be able to extend to them hos- 
pitalities in the city where he would be conducting 
business, surrounded by friends and possessing influence. 
The idea seemed so absurd that he was laughed at, 
and the employes of the office oftentimes in derision 
spoke of him as the city editor, and sneeringly looked 
forward in argument to the time when he would be ed- 
iting a daily newspaper in New York, and they would 
be working at the case, of course^in some country news- 
paper office. But he worked on, determined to win or 
die in the attempt. He said that what others had done 
he could do : that what others had done he would do, 
and more. That though he was then poor, the time 
would come when he would be rich, and when he would 
have influence. That the habits he had been taught in 
his childhood would last him through life, and make of 
him a laboring man ; that the religious instruction and 
temperance lessons he had received by precept and ex- 



44 LIFE OF 

ample, with the determination to be a man, he believed 
would effectually protect him from the snares and temp- 
tations which so often ruin the young men of the 
country, and carry down to bitter graves the old men 
of the land. 

His office companions asked him how he would reach 
this end — how he would ever own a printing-office: 
asked him if he had rich relatives, or if he expected to 
find a gold-mine, or that some magician's wand would 
lift out of the streets of New York an office ready built 
to his hands ? His reply to them was, that he intended 
to make his office by working for it : that he intended 
to save his money, to work hard, to start with a little 
printing-office, to add to it, and work earnestly and con- 
tinually for some one object till that object be accom- 
plished. That he should make his paper, when he grew 
up, the friend of the working-man, and the friend of the 
boys of the country, in hopes of being of some benefit 
to them ; to encourage them to exertions in their own 
behalf, and their homes, and that he knew that, this de- 
termination firmly planted in his heart-, there would be 
no such word as fail. Sitting by the stove in the 
printing-office, by the light of a candle, with arms bared, 
printer's ink-marks on clothes, hands, and face, he has 
for hours, when the labors of the day were done, inter- 
ested the apprentices and journeymen of the office, and 
at times his employers, as we learn from them, by mak- 
ing out in argument the course he was to pursue as he 



MARK M. rOMEROY.- 45 

worked on to reach the goal of his ambition. So earn- 
est was he, that Mr.' Messenger informs us, before he had 
been in the office a year, he converted many of the hands 
working in the office to believe that the time would 
come when the white-haired apprentice-boy would be- 
come the editor, if not of the largest paper in the world, 
of one of the largest and most influential. • 

His habits in the office were those of economy. His 
labor was always well and promptly done. No matter 
how severe the task, he went at it with the determina- 
tion to accomplish it ; and he always did accomplish it 
with satisfaction to his employers and credit to himself. 
He received for his first year's salary in the office the 
sum of $30.00, which sum was expected to clothe him 
and furnish him with what spending money he might 
deem it necessary to use. It was not a large sum for a 
boy to clothe himself with, especially when his ward- 
robe to start with was but meager, but was more than 
sufficient for his needs, as, at the expiration of the first 
year, he had saved from his earnings of $30.00, the, to 
him, very large jsum of $28.00. It is true that his ex- 
penses were more than two dollars per year; but he 
had a New Year's Address, from which he realized 
$21.00, the largest sum ever realized by a carrier-boy, 
at that time, in that place ; and had made a few dollars 
by trading in watches, knives, second-hand pistols, old 
shot-guns, and such property which he would buy, put 
in order, and sell for what they were worth, or trade — 



46 LIFE OF 

every time bettering himself — and at last dispose of 
them for something of use. 

A good story is told of him in Corning, which is 
vouched for as true by many of the residents there, and 
acknowledged to be true by Pomeroy himself. A Jew 
dealer in clothing sold him, when an apprentice, a pair 
of pants, which proved to be of very rotten material, and 
worth not over one-half of their cost. He was advised 
by Mr. Messenger to take the goods back and exchange 
them for a better pair. The dealer took advantage of 
the boy's ignorance as to the worth of clothing, and 
charged him double price. He refused to take them 
back to the clothier's, but said he would wait and get 
even with him, which he did. On the side-hill on the 
mountain side of Corning were rattlesnakes, sometimes 
of large size. They were looked upon as objects of cu- 
riosity ; and where the people were afraid of them, they 
were willing to look at them properly caged. 

On one occasion he had traded for a watch, which, 
from some cause or other, refused to keep time. On a 
Sunday. afternoon he bet three apples with one of the 
boys in the office that he could take the watch to pieces 
and put it together again, a job he never had attempted 
before. His reason for thinking he could was, that his 
father was a watchmaker, and that what the father 
could do the son should do likewise. So, armed with 
some impromptu screw-drivers made from darning- 
needles and knife-blades, he took the watch to pieces, 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 47 

cleaned it with an old tooth-brush, spread the several 
parts of the machinery about on the composing-stone in 
the office, and all one Sunday afternoon spent his time 
putting it together again. He succeeded in finding a 
place for every thing, and getting every thing in its 
place, as he thought, with the exception of one wheel, 
which he could not possibly find a place for. He took 
it out of the watch, but it was an impossibility to get it 
in again. He could make the watch run without that 
wheel, but, as he could not find the proper place for it, 
he lost his wager. He could wind the watch up, but it 
would not stay wound ; and the moment he withdrew- 
the key from the standard it would run down with a 
whirring noise not unlike that of a rattlesnake when in 
danger or when it gave warning. He carried this watch 
in his pocket for two or three days, wondering what to 
do with it. At last an idea struck him; he saw, back of 
a drugstore over which the printing-office was located, a 
piece of a tarred rope, which reminded him in size and 
length of a rattlesnake. He put this rope in a small box 
taken from the rubbish behind the store, nailed some 
slats over it, to see if he could not sell it that same night 
to the Jew who had sold him the pants, to be kept by 
him as a curiosity. The better to carry out his design, 
he wound up his watch, took the box under his arm, 
^ and, with one hand to keep the key on the standard of 
the watch, that it should not run down till the proper 
time, when he would withdraw the key ; and the whir- 



48 LIFE OF 

ring noise of the machinery in the watch, with his box 
held against the vest pocket where the watch was con- 
tained, resembled the whirring of a rattlesnake. So 
complete was the deception that he even fooled Mr. 
Messenger and the employes of the office. 

When he wanted the imaginary snake to rattle, he 
would wind up the watch till they poked it with a stick, 
when he would withdraw the key, and the whirring 
noise would commence and continue for half a minute 
or so. 

With this stock-in-trade he visited the Jew clothing 
dealer, who asked what he had. He said it was a big 
rattlesnake, a new style never before seen in that coun- 
try, and one that would bring a great deal of money if 
Barnum had it. Barnum was then in the height of his 
career. The merchant wished to see it. The boy re- 
fused. He did not like to put it down on the floor, for 
it might get out ; " and," said he, " if it should happen 
to get out of this box, all of you would be scared to 
death." 

The merchant wanted to know if it w^ould rattle. He 
said, " Yes, at times, if sufficiently irritated." Taking a 
piece of a long sliver, he thrust it in between the slats 
of the box, in which he could see a long, dark-looking 
object coiled up in some straw, whereupon Pomeroy 
withdrew the watch-key, and the whirring noise com- 
menced. The Jew jumped back affrighted, and said, 



MARK M. POMEROY. 49 

"Mine Gott ! he's got him zure. Vat vill you takes for 
him ?" 

After some little bargaining Pomeroy sold the new 
style of rattlesnake for a pair of doeskin pants, the best 
there were in the store. He did not effect a sale until he 
had o-one out two or three times to wind his watch, and 
let the Jew irritate the snake, when it would commence 
its whirring noise. The bargain was made, the pants 
delivered, and the box was, by Pomeroy, taken down 
stairs and deposited in the cellar with instructions not 
to disturb it till next morning, which was Sabbath, 
when he could invite his friends in and show it. The 
result of the trade was a pair of pants worth at that 
time six dollars and a half, much better than the pair 
he had bought and been cheated on. In the afternoon, 
on passing the store with a friend, he discovered the 
box, the dirty coil of rope, and the straw lying in front 
of the store, and that night came very near being 
whipped by the indignant Jew, who said he had been 
humbugged. Pomeroy said no, he had not been hum- 
bugged but simply rattlesnaked out of a pair of pants. 
He said : " I think you and I are just about even. You 
sold me a pair of pants which were not as they were 
represented, and I have got even by selling you a 
rattlesnake of a new kind, something never before seen 
in this country." As Pomeroy was with one or two of 
his companions, the merchant thought the job was a 

3 



50 LIFE OF 

little more than he wanted to wallop the aforesaid, 
contented himself by swearing roundly, and telling him 
never to enter his store again ; to which he replied that 
he would not unless he wanted to buy a pair of pants 
or sell a snake, in which case he would most likely call 
upon him. 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 51 



CHAPTER VII. 

Boyish follies.— Beer story— Codfishery. -Three celebrities. 

As a raider Pomeroy was an eminent success. If 
there was a grape-vine, or an apple-tree that bore good 
apples, or melon-patch that had nice melons at the 
proper season, anywhere near there, that he did not 
find it out and, in company with a set of companions, 
of whom he was the chosen leader, visit the aforesaid 
place, it was news to the inhabitants of Corning. No 
matter how carefully the products of the garden would 
be guarded, how many watch-dogs employed, or how 
many men hired to defend the premises or guard 
against depredators, by some trick or bribery, coaxing 
or inducement, he would always succeed in lulling the 
suspicions of the guard, and either bear off himself the 
coveted plunder or would entertain them while his 
companions would secure the same. 

Soon after the great fire in Corning, while he was an 
apprentice boy in the office, the room underneath the 
printing-office was occupied by a grocery firm. The 
building was rather a primitive one, built for immediate 
use upon the ruins of a better building, and was noth- 
ing more than a wooden structure hastily put up. 



52 LIFE OF 

Standing one day in the second story of the building 
thinking of something, knocking with his heel at a knot 
in the floor,, he knocked the knot through, and it fell 
into the store below. Looking through the hole, which 
was perhaps two inches across, he saw directly under- 
neath it on the counter several beer-bottles, or bottles 
containing small-beer, and glasses, it being a part of 
the business of the occupants below to sell small-beer, 
confectionery, fruit, pies, cakes, etc. Seeing a bottle 
of beer underneath was to covet it ; but how to get it 
was a mystery. He had money to buy it; but the 
trick was to get it without buying. In the ruins of a 
hardware store he had, a few days previous, found a 
very large fish-hook, which he had saved and brought 
to the office for some purpose, at that time he did not 
know what, but said : " It might be handy to have 
around the house should it ever be needed." A novel 
idea of obtaining the beer took possession of him. He 
tied this hook to a piece of twine, and had two or three 
boys go down in front and engage the attention of the 
man, while he let the hook through the knot-hole down 
till it reached a bottle, where, after considerable skir- 
mishing, he succeeded in fastening it to the string 
which held the cork in place. No sooner was it caught 
fast, than he drew the bottle up to the floor, the hole 
just admitting the neck of the same. In order to 
strengthen the floor of the printing-office, the joists 
had been placed very close together, so that the bottle 



MARK M. POMEROY. 53 

when drawn up between them was out of the reach of 
observation, except to a very close observer, from the 
store beneath. Tying the bottle to the leg of a case, 
he removed the cork ; but how to get the beer out was 
another question. He solved this by going to the tin- 
shop and having a chum make for him a long tube two 
feet long, a sort of metallic straw, through which the 
employes of the office took turns in sucking the afore- 
said small-beer. When the bottle was emptied, two or 
three of the boys would go down stairs again and en- 
tertain the merchant, who was not able to hire a clerk, 
when the bottle would be lowered to its place on the 
counter, and after another skirmishing and wriggling 
of the hook another bottle would be fastened upon and 
drawn up to the floor above. This mode of procur- 
ing beverage was carried on for some weeks,- the mer- 
chant below wondering how so many bottles should be 
emptied and he not know anything about it. Some- 
times half a dozen or more bottles a day would be 
emptied in this manner. On one occasion, while stand- 
ins: in the door eno-asred in conversation with a con- 
federate of the beer-raiser, he by accident turned 
around and saw the bottle following a string up toward 
the ceiling. He says : " My God ! I've found the 
leak at last." Coming up stairs indignant, he insisted 
that he should have Pomeroy arrested ; but the hands 
of the office laughed at him so much for not appreciat- 
ing a good joke, that he sent up half a dozen bottles 



54 LIFE OF 

of small-beer rather than have the matter published. 
Nailing a piece of sheet-iron over the knot-hole, he 
departed a wiser if not richer man. But Pomeroy kept 
the hook and string for other spoils. 

On one occasion a hogshead of codfish was brought 
back of the store, directly under the window at the 
rear of the printing-office, and the parties in the store 
were engaged in carrying the codfish in baskets down 
to the cellar, where it might be kept moist. Looking 
out of the window, he discovered this new fishing- 
ground, and with his fish-hook and cord succeeded, 
between trips of the merchant, in raising from the 
hogshead up to the window five or six large codfish, 
which were kept there until the merchant had emptied 
the hogshead and rolled it away, when all but one of 
them were dropped out of the window on to the back 
steps, and the merchant wondered for an hour where in 
thunder those lost codfish came from. Looking out 
of the front window, he saw a deacon of one of the 
churches, who was noted for his parsimonious habits, and 
of whom it was said that he had not the rights of 
property defined in his own mind as he should have 
had. 

As the man jumped into his wagon to start off, Pome- 
roy threw the codfish out of the window at him, and it 
struck on the seat beside him, when the very honest 
deacon put spurs to his horses, and went on without 



MARK M. POMEROY. 55 

stopping to see where it came from or who sent it to 
him. 

While at work in the office of the Journal at Corning 
as apprentice, D. R. Locke, who has won a national 
notoriety as " Petroleum V. Nasby," was a journeyman 
printer in the same office. For a long time there was an 
irrepressible conflict between Locke and Pomeroy as to 
which should play the best practical joke upon the 
other. Numerous were the jokes, and some of them 
rather severe, played both ways, till at last Locke gave 
up and proposed an armistice. 

On one occasion, of a Sunday afternoon, instead of 
attending church, the boys from the printing-office went 
upon the hillside to gather chestnuts, at that time just 
falling from the trees, by aid of a little shaking of the 
branches, or threshing of the same with a pole. Pome- 
roy, being rather good at climbing, and somewhat at 
home in the branches of a chestnut-tree, if not in the 
different branches of education, was selected as the one 
to thresh out the chestnuts for his companions to pick 
up. He commenced his work, and threshed away at the 
different tree-tops till nearly nightfall, when the others 
had secured about half a bushel of the nuts. They had 
filled all their pockets full. When he came down from 
the last tree and proposed to have them divide, they 
could not see it, and Locke insisted upon it that they 
had done exactly as they agreed — that Pomeroy had 



56 LIFE OF 

threshed out and they had picked up, and that if he 
wanted any more chestnuts he could get them ; when, 
with their pockets full and his nearly empty, the party 
returned to the house of Mr. Messenger in time for 
supper. 

After supper, while he was away from the house, 
they hid their chestnuts in the rubbish-room, and pro- 
posed to keep them there till such a time as they might 
be wanted. In the evening Pomeroy returned while the 
others were out. On learning that they had hidden 
their chestnuts somewhere about the house, he searched 
for an hour till he found them in three or four different 
hiding-places, aided in a measure by the servant girl — 
who was always his friend — and then hid the nuts in 
another and safer place, where Eliza and himself — Eliza 
being the girl's name — found and enjoyed them during 
the winter. Locke and the other printers insisted upon 
it that it was an almighty mean trick, to which Pomeroy 
assented, but never restored to the disconsolate printers 
their nuts. 

The office of The Corning Journal, by the way, is 
noted for having drawn out three very successful men, 
who either began life at the case or press in that office, 
or who worked there ; and all of whom worked together 
at the same time, sat at the same table in Mr. Messen- 
ger's house, and occupied the same room for a number 
of months. No other one printing-office in this country 



MARK M. POMEROY. 



57 



or in any other country has turned out three as success- 
ful men, as has this office -all of them springing from 
the humblest walks of life, and all of them, by attention 
to business, winning great success. 

One of them is M. M. Pomeroy, who began in that 
office without a shilling, and who now, despite differ- 
ences of political opinion between the editor of the 
Journal, who was at one time his employer, and himself, 
looks upon the office and its editor, G. W. Pratt, with 
more than kindly feelings and interest. 

The second notability, if we may use the word, is D. 
R. Locke, whose reputation as the author of the 
Nasby Papers is well-known throughout the country. 
The other is W. L. Halsey, at present a very wealthy 
citizen of New York, and a partner in the Overland 
Stage Company's line to California, and also a holder 
of large interests in other extensive companies' banking 
and steamboat institutions of the country. Side by side, 
month by month, poor, but always looking confidently 
to the future, and determined to bring out of that future 
success, these three young men worked. They all left 
the office about the same time, each going in different 
directions— each winning wealth, popularity, and the 
confidence of their respective friends. While at work 
in the office as an apprentice, many is the night, after 
all others had left the office, Pomeroy would work there, 
oftentimes till nearly morning, at extra or piece-work, 



K 



8 LIFE OF 



earning from a quarter to half a dollar a night, which 
was accredited to him by his employer, and in time 
paid to him. 

One of the then employes of the office, at that time a 
journeyman, as he is now a journeyman compositor in a 
country village in this State, informs us that many a night 
when returning home from a party or concert or some 
place of amusement, he has seen a light in the office, and 
on going there found Pomeroy at work at the case, with 
flickering tallow-candle beside him, setting dirty type for 
a shilling per thousand ems, or setting up some fancy 
job, obtaining a proof of the same, then distributing the 
type to its proper place, and in the morning showing his 
job of work to Mr. Messenger, and asking his opinion 
of the same ; and asking him also for advice or sug- 
gestions how to improve upon the beauty of the work. 
So earnest and determined was he to become a printer, 
that in less than one year he had charge of the job de- 
partment of the office and set nearly every job, great 
and small, that came into the concern, and earned con- 
siderable money by working the same on the press at 
night, or by setting type. Often has he worked for the 
other journeymen after his labors were done, sometimes 
using his time till nearly morning, that they might have 
recreation, attend parties, or have play-spells out of the 
office. 

One secret of his success lies in the fact that he very 
seldom squandered money foolishly. He was always 



MARK M. POMEROY. 59 

willing to work ; if he could not receive large wages he 
was willing to take up with small, rather than be idle. 
In this way he perfected himself, and set an example 
that other printers and working-men of the land would 
do well to follow. His employer finding him faithful 
and determined, soon found it to his interest to give him 
good wages, and put him upon good work as he was 
able to do it, and advance him, step by step, for the in- 
terest of both boy and man, as all good employers will 
do in protection of their own interests, on learning that 
a man in their employ is willing to make himself useful. 
Mr. Messenger had the reputation of being the best job 
printer in that section of the country, and as his succes- 
sors in office did not pay that attention to job printing 
and were not so well qualified to teach that branch of 
the trade, so soon as Mr. Messenger had bought him a 
new office at Waverly, a few miles distant on the line 
of the Erie Railway, which office was well stocked with 
new material, at the solicitation of Mr. Messenger, and 
with the consent of the proprietors of the Journal-office, 
to whom Mr. Messenger sold, the better to finish his 
education, and learn the mysteries of printing to perfec- 
tion, as well as to be with those who had been kind to 
him when he came to Corning poor and unknown, he 
bid good-bye to his friends in Corning, and joined his 
former employer in Waverly, with as much attention to 
deviltry as to printing, for upwards of a year, till Mr. 
Messenger left for Canada, where he is now engaged in 



60 LIFE OF 

the printing business. The residents of Waverly re- 
member him well as a printer's boy, and a sort of wild 
one at that ; as one full of life, of fun, and mischievous 
pranks, but one whose character for truth, integrity, 
kindness of heart, and attention to business never had 
been questioned by any who knew him. 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 61 



CHAPTER VIII. * 

Mark foils in love.— How a joke terminated.— Goes to Canada.— Returns to 
Waverly and finds his lady-love married— He marries one he loves 
better. 

For a time he resided in Waverly, and worked hard 
at his business, forming in the mean time many pleasant 
acquaintances, and falling desperately in love with a 
handsome young lady, whose relatives refused their 
consent to a marriage, for the reason that he was " a 
poor, dirty-fingered type-sticker," and " that it was be- 
neath the dignity of an aristocratic family to permit the 
marriage of the daughter with a common mechanic." 

After some little skirmishing, trouble, and so forth, 
and the usual number of disappointments in love mat- 
ters, the young lady was sent to school; and in the 
autumn of 1853, to better his condition by working at 
case, Mark went to Canada. 

Mr. Messenger had been obliged to close business at 
Waverly, and had moved to Canada West, where he 
accepted the foremanship of an office at Brantford. He 
kindly offered his old " devil" a situation at good wages, 
six dollars a week, out of which immense sum Mark had 
to board himself. 



62 • LIFE OF 

He worked in Brantford, in the Courier office, four 
weeks, receiving for four weeks' work twenty-four dol- 
lars, sixteen of which he had to pay for board. The 
week days were spent in labor; Sundays in writing 
love-letter^, which never reached their destination, and 
the nights in study, or in making raids upon the grape- 
ries and melon-patches of the city. On one occasion, 
with two companions, he walked three miles, each of 
the three carrying a large coffee-sack filled with fine 
watermelons (so they thought) from the garden of a 
wealthy farmer. They lugged the stolen melons to the 
office, and, on arriving there, about midnight, struck a 
light, and found to their chagrin, upon emptying their 
bags and examining the contents, that every water- 
melon they had stolen was a citron. 

Those who have been engaged in like scrapes, can 
well imagine the surprise and disgust of the young 
rogues; but they sold out the citrons to a grocery- 
keeper, who disposed of them for preserving purposes, 
and realized a handsome sum from the mistake. 

During his stay in Brantford, Mark was only remark- 
able for being the leader in all adventures for fun pecu- 
liar to young men. 

In the early winter of the same year, Mark went to 
Simcoe, Canada West, as a compositor in a weekly 
newspaper-office, from which he was discharged for his 
joking propensity. 

On one occasion, when employed to clean a press, he 



MARK M. ROMERO Y. 63 

bought a bundle of paper-rags from a hardware store. 
In this bundle he found an old petticoat, which he hung 
up in a little closet, or private rubbage-room under the 
stairs of the main printing-office, using the rest of the 
rags to clean the press with. 

A few days after the work was finished, the wife of 
the proprietor came into the office, and, woman-like, 
looked curiously around in every possible place to see 
what important discovery she could make. At length 
she opened this closet-door and found the mentioned 
garment, hanging there in full sight, when she indig- 
nantly demanded the meaning of her husband, who 
expressed ignorance of its being there, and said that 
it meant nothing, and that he did not know what it 
all amounted to any way ; and as he said this, Mark, 
who was standing working; at the case a little dis- 
tance from him, remarked in a low tone, 

" Why, Mr. Clancy !" 

His wife, of course, insisted upon having an explana- 
tion, and asked Mark if he knew anything of the gar- 
ment. His reply was : 

" That is too old a petticoat for me to know anything 
about !" 

A scene ensued ; the result was that Mark was dis- 
charged for running a joke of this kind upon the pro- 
prietor, a corpulent Irishman. 

He then went to the office of the Advocate, and at 
once procured a situation as foreman of that establish- 



64 LIFE OF 

ment, at larger wages ; which position he retained until 
the middle of winter, when he started on a tramp, in 
hopes of finding more profitable business in which he 
could make money enough to pay his passage to Cali- 
fornia, in the event of his not being able to marry the 
young lady to whom he was at that time still engaged. 
Leaving Simcoe one day in the stage, Mark reached 
the village of Gait, a little while after dark. Applied 
at once for a situation in a country office, and was so 
fortunate as to secure one immediately on piece-woi-k. 
The paper, owing to a scarcity of hands, was one or two 
days behind, and Mark was employed to work with two 
or three other printers, until all the type for the paper 
should have been set up. The job, it was thought, 
would be finished by six o'clock in the morning. He 
worked earnestly and faithfully at the case, by the light 
of two tallow-candles, until he had put in type one 
column of matter, when the proprietor of the concern 
found fault with the change of a word Mark made in 
the copy in order to correct a grammatical error. He 
discovered the change in reading the proof, and com- 
menced cursing the young man for making it, who made 
no reply but went to work to fill his case, to put another 
column in type; but instead of distributing dead mat- 
ter, he distributed the live matter he had just set up ! 
He passed a wet sponge over the form, threw the type 
back in the case, leaving it, as he found it, in good 
order, then washing his hands, he put on his coat and 



MARK M. rOMEROT. OJ 



hat, and went down stairs, withont waiting for his pay 
for either the work or the mischief. 

This incident was only a faint indication of the natu- 
ral independence which now characterized the every 
action of M. M. Pomeroy, and an index to the character 
of the man who believes in getting even with those 

who wrong him. 

At four o'clock that same morning he took passage 
in the stage for Guelph, a pleasant village some miles 
distant. The morning was intensely cold, and the 
sleighing being very fine, he, seated by the sue of the 
driver, whose stage carried the mail, enjoyed his ride 

very much indeed. # 

After they had gone a few miles, the driver com- 
plained of being cold, and Mark told him that he might 
cot out and run behind the stage, and that he would 
hold on to the reins, and when he got in again then it 
would be his (Mark's) turn, and he would get out and 
run so they could both be warm. 

The driver got out and ran behind the sleigb some 

little distance, telling Mark to drive faster, that he 

mig ht have more exercise. He put the whip to the 

houses, and started off on a run of about three-quarters 

of a mile, leaving the stage-driver far behind who ran 

and yelled with all his might, crying « Stop thief! stop 

thief !" fearing that Mark intended running away with 

the team and the queen's mail. 

After giving him a nice run, the horses were steadied 



66 

LIFE OF 



same to him he ° , ? ' "^ lf " wo,lld be all the 
-shed, C', et aToti JUSt M "~ " "* ""« »* bead 

^e^^e^r ; "" ** « - 

at Guelph. WhenThe ho fS^*" and hotel 

treat to some Scotch J • T T lM UP ' Ma * k stoo * 

- * -#*. who ^>; *£* £*£ of one 

was edited by a mr ,i, , e ' The P a per 

Stuith, wb0 tLted t y f g6ntIeman by the -™ * 
' -d courtesy d^! ItfT^ ^ «"* ki " d «- 
be left, whichwa S 1 t -f " '^^ there ' °« *e day 

be bad taken had Jv ° 8 * ,tto " M Wh ° Se P la - 

gave him a 12 on tVT Tf "" ^ *■ Sm «b 

-oney than h tad b f * °'' *** d ° IIara > ^™ 

/ an he had before possessed in all his life 

^ be left d G r p h°a J ^ ^ ^ "** ^ 
arrived in time to L , • Waverly, where he 

*■— dashed to the ^ ll£™£ 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 67 

home of his uncle, Mr. White, in Southport, near El- 
mira, where he remained most of the summer. 

In the autumn of the same year, George W. Pratt, 
of the Journal at Corning, wrote Pomeroy to come to 
his office, and begged that he would accept the situa- 
tion of foreman. He responded promptly to the call ; 
but the wages offered, although sufficient to cover his 
expenses, he deemed scarcely worth the services he 
knew he could render Mr. Pratt. So Mark told him, if 
he did not consent to pay him a fair salary, which was 
the moderate sum of seven dollars a week, he would go 
to New York, buy a job-office, and start it in opposition 
to him. Mr. Pratt, knowing that the young man had 
no money, laughed at his, as he thought, idle threat. 

Mark had at that time twenty dollars, with which 
amount he started for New York. Upon arriving in 
this great cosmopolitan emporium, he called at the type- 
foundry of White & Webb, stated to them that he 
was a young printer — a poor young man just coming 
of age, without friends whose means would allow them 
to assist him — that he wanted to buy six hundred dol- 
lars worth of printing material, for which he would give 
a mortgage on the property, and pay them in monthly 
instalments, until the whole debt was cancelled ; which 
proposition was rejected. 

He then, no ways discouraged — for even in those days 
Mr. Pomeroy did not exactly understand the meaning 



68 LIFE OF 

of the word "fail" — called at the foundry of James 
Connor & Sons, and introduced himself to James Con- 
ner, the senior member of the firm, who invited the 
young man into his private office, where they conversed 
some time. The result was, Mr. Connor instructed Mark 
to select such materials as he needed, saying that he 
would trust him upon his honor — that he thought he 
would pay, and he was willing to encourage every young 
man who he thought was honest and ambitious. Mr. 
Pomeroy thus feelingly speaks of his early friend : 

" Mr. Connor struck me as being one of the best- 
hearted men I ever saw ; and no one can tell the feeling 
of gratitude, almost of veneration, I had for him when 
he gave me the Specimen-book of his foundry, with 
liberty to select therefrom such articles as I needed for 
my little office. His kindness gave me confidence ; his 
advice strength ; the aid he then gave me made me his 
friend forever ; and I would have suffered every cent I 
had in the world to be taken from me before I would 
have cheated him out of one penny." 

The office was duly paid for as agreed upon, and 
when Mr. Connor died a few years since, no printer in 
all the land, or no friend outside his own family, felt 
sadder than did the once poor boy he helped through 
his first venture. 

Upon the hand-press and type purchased from Mr. 
Connor, the enterprising journalist established a small 
job-office in Corning, and in the Spring of 1854 began 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 69 

the publication of a little paper the size of a sheet of 
commercial note-paper, which he called The Sun. First 
he published one thousand copies for gratuitous circula- 
tion. It was filled with local items, and a few adver- 
tisements of the leading merchants of the place, who 
jointly paid enough to secure fair wages, and no more, 
for the week, and also the expenses he had incurred in 
getting out the little paper, which had probably cost 
six dollars a thousand. 

The Sun attracted considerable attention, for it con- 
tained some good local hits; and the people seemed 
anxious to see the next issue of it. 

The advertisements came pouring in, the demand for 
it increased, and in a short time Mr. Pomeroy commenced 
its regular publication; made it a good-sized sheet, 
and a prosperous local country paper, when in the 
Spring of 1855, he sold the office for thirteen hundred 
dollars, beinor twice as much as it cost. 

In order to make Mr. Connor secure in his payments, 
Mr. Pomeroy had taken into the office with him a printer 
by the name of P. C. Van Gelder, who retained his in- 
terest in the paper until they sold it to the Rev. Ira 
Brown, who changed the name of the paper from Tlie 
San to the Democrat or Coming Democrat, which is 
now edited by his son Frank Brown. 

Mark then went to New York, and purchased a small 
card-press and some type, with which he returned to 



TO LIFE OF 

Corning, and for a stated sum per week, put it in the 
office of the Journal, and took the foremanship of that 
office, which never was in a more prosperous condition 
or did a larger business than while he was working there 
with his little press and new type. 

While engaged in the publication of the Sun, just be- 
fore its sale, he married Miss Anna A. Wheeler, of Cor- 
ning, a young lady who was connected with one of the 
oldest families of Broome County, New York. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 71 



CHAPTER IX. 

Goes West to seek his fortune* 

Ik the Fall of 1855, Mr. Pomeroy was solicited by the 
citizens and business men of Athens, Pennsylvania, to 
remove his press, type, and other little articles he had 
accumulated, to that village, and engage in the publi- 
cation of a newspaper called the Athens Gazette, which 
he did, and continued publishing it until the Spring of 
1857, giving the paper a good local name, but failing to 
draw from it anything more than enough to pay ex- 
penses. "In fact," says Mr. Pomeroy, "many and 
many a day, while engaged as editor of that paper, 
working at the press and case myself, with but one 
journeyman printer, who is now, by the way, in my em- 
ploy in New York, and has been a long time with me 
in La Crosse — my family and myself were entirely des- 
titute of sufficient food wherewith to make a meal. I 
remember even now, with gratitude, the kindness of 
some of the citizens there, who brought in from their 
gardens early vegetables and choice bits of meat, little 
thinking that they were the only delicacies that we had 
had for many days ; not but they could be had in the 
place, but money was required with which to purchase 



72 LIFE OF 

them, and money I could not get only in quantities suf- 
ficient to pay my help, and for the paper and ink used 
in the office." 

In 1856, he was employed by Col. Piolett, a wealthy, 
prominent Democratic politician of that county, to pub- 
lish a campaign paper for him, edited by a lawyer, 
Frank Smith, of Troy. His work on this paper amount- 
ed to two hundred dollars, which was the largest sum 
of money ever received by Mr. Pomeroy while in Penn- 
sylvania, and was looked upon by him as an immense 
job. 

In the Spring of 1857, with less than twenty-one dol- 
lars in his packet, but having free passes over the rail- 
road from Waverly, a village four miles from Athens, 
to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in company with his wife, he 
left Pennsylvania to seek his fortune in the West, among 
the young men from the East, and the pioneers of that 
country. In Mr. Pomeroy's words, " The future was all 
before me, I had everything to make, and nothing to 
lose. I had pluck, and ambition ; had paid my debts, 
though it impoverished my purse ; and with a stiff up- 
per lip, and a stout heart, struck out for the land of the 
prairies, determined to build myself up with that coun- 
try, and to make a home for my family, and a reputa- 
tion for myself, if it were possible so to do there 
amons; strangers." 

In April, 1857, Mr. Pomeroy and his family arrived 



MARK M. POMEKOY. 73 

at Iloricon, Wisconsin, with only seventy-four cents in 
his pocket. Here he found an old printing-office, from 
which a paper had been issued until its editor had be- 
come too poor to continue the publication, when it was 
discontinued. 

An old hand-press and some dirty type were stowed 
away in a small room, and amounted in value to about 
seven hundred dollars. This material he purchased 
from Mr. Croft, the owner thereof, for the price above- 
named, payable, three hundred dollars at the end of the 
first vear, two hundred more at the end of the second, 
and the remainder at the end of the third year, with the 
usual rate of interest. 

Giving his note for this old material, he at once took 
possession of the office, and with sleeves rolled up, went 
to work cleaning the materials and putting the press in 
working order. After a few days' hard work, he suc- 
ceeded in getting the material in very good shape, and, 
within a week or two, issued the first number of the 
country newspaper called The Iloricon Argus. 

When he took hold of the office, he had not as much 
as half a dollar; not a cent of money to buy wood, ink, 
paper, or to pay the employes. The wood needed, 
Mark lugged on his back from the sawmill, taking from 
the refuse piles, boards, slats, knots, and so forth. He 
was too poor to buy potash to make lye to clean the 
type, so he improvised a " leech" by filling an old Han- 
't 



74 LIFE OF 

keo- with ashes and manufacturing therefrom lye suf 
ficient to boil the type, which he did, and then boiled 
it in water, until it was thoroughly cleaned. 

He then sent to Milwaukee for a bundle of paper, and 
asked credit for it, to the amount of six dollars, for one 
week. The paper came, to collect on delivery. He had 
no money to take it out of the office, and debated for a 
Ions: time whether he should borrow the money or 
return the paper, having, at that time, work enough 
then in the office to more than pay for the paper, the 
overplus being enough to pay for two or three editions 
of the weekly issue. 

Upon examination, he found the paper to be of very 
inferior quality, and at once returned it to the dealers in 
Milwaukee, objecting to the quality, and also to their 
disregard of his instructions as to sending it, he want- 
ing credit and they wanting it paid for on delivery. 
By the next mail an answer came, stating that they 
would send better paper, and also give credit for it. 
Whereupon Mr. Pomeroy ordered one hundred dollars 
worth of paper, to be paid for in thirty days. It came 
in due time, and made a cart-load, which was more 
paper than had ever been seen in that town at one time, 
which of course attracted considerable attention, and 
led people to suppose that the new editor must be a 
man of great wealth to be able to buy one hundred dol- 
lars worth of paper at once. 

While this paper was on the road, it having become 



MARK M. TOMEEOT. 75 

known that Mr. Pomeroy intended to resurrect the 
local newspaper, a few subscriptions came into the office, 
amounting in the aggregate to nearly twenty dollars, 
which enabled him to pay the freight on the paper, and 
to have a little money in his pocket. 

In due time the paper came out, well-filled with local 
and interesting matter — original and entertaining — and 
it became a success from the first number, under Mark's 
management. It attracted a great deal of attention, 
and in a short time was looked upon as one of the best 
local papers in Wisconsin, if not in the entire West. 
It was often quoted, sometimes strongly censured, very . 
often laughed at, sometimes praised, and thus won its 
way into notoriety, and became a source of profit to its 
publishers. Mr. Pomeroy was always ready to defend 
his friends, or to make war upon anybody who attacked 
the newspaper, the Democracy it advocated, or the 
friends of the paper, and had a great many newspaper 
controversies, spats, and repartees, which added very 
much to its interest and its reputation. 



*76 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER X. 

He earns the name of " Brick.'"— Goes to Washington. 

A few weeks after the paper became fully started, in 
reply to an attack upon the village of Horicon by a rural 
paper published in a Western village called Beaver 
Dam, Mr. Pomeroy published a humorous burlesque — a 
nonsensical bit of criticism, characteristically illustrat- 
ing the people, their habits, and also the architecture 
of the rural village. It was a new style of literature 
never before attempted, and ran the rounds of the press 
West and East. 

The article was copied by George D. Prentice, of the 
Louisville Journal, prefaced with the remark that the 
writer of that article, and especially the inventor of that 
style of sarcasm, was a perfect brick. 

A number of newspapers copied the article, with the 
prefatory remarks of the Journal, endorsing the idea 
that the man who could write or invent that style of 
burlesque was indeed a perfect " Brick." 

Soon after the appearance of this article, Mr. Pomeroy 
took an active part in the Congressional campaign, aid- 
ins: to secure the nomination and election of the Hon. 
Charles H. Larrabee to Congress from that district, in 



MARK M. POMEROT. 77 

the face of two thousand three hundred Republican 
majority. To that election Mr. Pomeroy devoted all 
his time and energies, and also all the money he could 
get hold of. 

The result of the campaign was, the election by nearly 
one thousand majority, greatly to the surprise of the 
Republicans and the delight of the Democrats of that 
district, very many of whom gave the credit of the elec- 
tion to Mr. Pomeroy, and insisted that for this work, on 
behalf of the Democracy, he deserved to be called not 
only a "perfect brick" but that his name ought to be 
changed by the Legislature from " M. M." to " Brick" 
Pomeroy. 

Several of the editors of that district and State, and 
quite a number of Democrats, at once took up the 
sobriquet, mentioned him in the press as "Brick" Pom- 
eroy, and addressed letters to him by that name. He 
used the signature in writing a few humorous articles, 
and in a short time it became so completely attached to 
his name that, until a, very few years, not one man in a 
hundred in the United States knew of him other than as 
" Brick" Pomeroy. 

Within a few months after starting in business at 
Horicon, he was appointed one of the Deputy United 
States Marshals of that State. He held his office through 
M. J. Thomas, United States Marshal of Wisconsin 
under James Buchanan, for several months, and was so 
prompt, energetic, and reliable in the transaction of 



78 LIFE OF 

whatever business came into his hands, that he was 
looked upon as one of the most efficient officers in the 
State, and was given a great many very difficult tasks 
to attend to, all of which were promptly and very satis- 
factorily performed, with profit to himself from the 
legitimate fees and nothing more, as well as to the satis- 
faction of all parties concerned. 

The earnings from this office amounted during the 
year to several hundred dollars, which placed Mr. Pome- 
roy on a firm financial footing — the more so as he was 
careful not to move beyond his means. 

At the commencement of the quarrel between Douglas 
and Buchanan, notwithstanding that he held office under 
the President and was liable to be removed by his order 
at any moment, Pomeroy took sides personally and edi- 
torially with Mr. Douglas, endorsed his position, de- 
nounced that of the President in advance of any other 
newspaper in the West, and from that time until the 
day of Mr. Douglas' death was ranked among his most 
intimate personal friends and most earnest political sup- 
porters. 

In 1858, Mr. Pomeroy left his office at Horicon in 
charge of a foreman, still retaining the editorship and 
proprietorship of the paper, but accepting the situation 
of city editor of the Milwaukee Daily News, at a salary 
of eight hundred dollars per year, a sum insufficient to 
pay his board and family expenses. 

During his connection with the Jfihoaukee News, he 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 19 

still retained his position as Deputy United States Mar- 
shal, but realized little profit from the office, as his 
duties as city editor prevented him from making trips 
into the country for the serving of writs and other pur- 
poses, except in extreme cases, where a prompt, decisive 
man was required. 

The Milwaukee News, while Mr. Pomeroy was editor, 
was noted as one of the sharpest and most personal local 
papers in the West. Its circulation more than doubled. 
It was quoted all over the country, and some of the arti- 
cles, humorous and otherwise, published in many of the 
papers, which gave both the paper and the writer con- 
siderable prominence in editorial and other circles. 

A few months after he went to Milwaukee he sold the 
paper in Horicon to the man he had left in charge 
thereof as foreman, realizing only a moderate profit in 
the sale, after paying all his debts and liabilities ; leaving 
the paper on a firm paying basis, with a circulation 
equal to that of the largest and best-conducted country 
newspapers in the State, if not in advance of most of 
them. His reason for disposing of the Horicon paper 
was, that he was promised a partnership in the Mil- 
waukee paper, on which he was still engaged; but, for 
some unaccountable reason, at the expiration of the first 
year as city editor on the paper, there was perfect 
willingness to allow him to continue as city editor, but 
not to give him the partnership interest which he had 
been led to expect. He thereupon went, at the expira- 



80 LIFE OP 

tion of his year, to Washington to gain a knowledge of 
the manners, habits, and customs of politicians, and to 
see for himself of legislative doings, as well as to add a 
little to his slender income *by writing letters of corres- 
pondence from the Capital to some of the leading news- 
papers of the country. 

- He remained some months in Washington, mixing 
with political men, and all the while earnestly support- 
ing Douglas against Buchanan. It being known that 
Pomeroy had some friends in the West and entree to 
Western newspapers, overtures were made by Mr. 
Buchanan, through his confidential friends — first, for 
him to desert Mr. Douglas and come out against him 
through all the papers he could reach by letter and 
otherwise, and to indorse Mr. Buchanan. Refusing to 
thus desert a friend and turn against him, he was 
offered the choice of several consulships or second-class 
missions abroad to leave the country and not further 
espouse the cause of the " Little Giant," as he was then 
familiarly known. Refusing to desert Mr. Douglas and 
his friends in the West, Mr. Pomeroy was soon after 
notified that his services were no longer required as 
Deputy U. S. Marshal, and the place which he had held 
was given to another. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 81 



CHAPTER XI. 

In which he establishes the renowned La Crosse Democrat. 

In the spring of 1860, after an eventful and interest- 
ing season at Washington, during which Mr. Pomeroy 
wrote for several newspapers and furnished quite a num- 
ber of squibs to " Vanity Fair," then edited by " Arte- 
mas Ward," he returned West, arriving at Milwaukee 
with a very few dollars in his pocket — richer only in 
knowledge and experience gained in Washington. 

Upon the solicitation of a few of the business men 
of La Crosse, he made an exploring expedition to that 
city, the result of which was, that he in time purchased 
an interest in a paper then published and known as the 
Union and Democrat, paying for the interest (sup- 
posed to be about half) $1,600, giving his notes there- 
for. He purchased the interest of Mr. C. P. Sykes, 
a present resident of Boston, and for a number of 
years a prominent Western man, who, soon after selling 
his interest to Mr. Pomeroy, removed to Denver City, 
where he amassed a considerable fortune in the sold- 
mining business. 

When Mr. Pomeroy took hold of the La Crosse paper, 
it was with the distinct understanding that he was to 
be financial and editorial manager thereof. 

4* 



82 LIFE OF 

There were two partners in the concern besides him- 
self, each with a similar interest. A difference of opinion 
arising between one of the partners and Mr. Pomeroy 
as to the duty of Democrats in supporting Douglas or 
Buchanan, led to the dissolution of the firm. 

One of the partners insisted that the paper should not 
be made a " Douglas" organ ; Mr. Pomeroy insisted that 
it should ; the third party refused to decide whether it 
should or should not espouse the Douglas cause, and 
left the "irrepressible conflict" for the two senior 
editors to settle between themselves. Believing he had 
a risrht to decide as to its political character according 
to the terms of the contract made when he entered the 
office, Mr. Pomeroy took the position he wished, and 
made the paper a regular " Douglas" organ, greatly to 
the disgust of the opposing faction and to the annoy- 
ance of the men there who held office under Buchanan. 

One day, while this dispute was pending, he wrote an 
editorial, "a leading article," and instructed its inser- 
tion in the small daily which was then being published, 
leaving the office while it was being put in type. On 
returning to the office, he found that the article had been 
prepared, but that one of the partners had refused to 
allow it to go in the paper, and had written an article 
directly in opposition to his position, which he insisted 
must go in as the leading editorial of that day. The 
result was a quarrel in the office, the preparing for a 
fight, and a war of words, in which Mr. Pomeroy came 



MARK M. POMEROY. 83 

off victorious, and took the offensive article out of the 
form, placed his own in its stead, prepared the type, 
made the press ready for work, and, with hat, coat, vest, 
necktie and suspenders off, with sleeves rolled up, he 
stood m the office until the foreman had worked the 
entire edition, which then numbered about two hundred 
copies, from the press, when he retired, as the employes 
of the office said, "the victor." 

There were several mortgages on this office to secure 
its payment and for the settlement of claims ; and the 
partner with whom Mr. Pomeroy had the political diffi- 
culty, soon after the appearance of the paper containing 
his editorial, gave the keys of the concern to one of the 
mortgage holders, who foreclosed it at once, with the 
intention of depriving Mr. Pomeroy of the interest in 
the paper and the right to speak his sentiments. 

The office remained closed for a clay or two, when 
Pomeroy kicked the door open, took possession, and 
settled the claim in a manner satisfactory to the parties 
holding it. He then purchased the interest of the gentle- 
man with whom he had had the difficulty, leaving but 
one partner in the concern, who took charge of the local 
department. 

During seven months' time, the office was closed nine 
times by officers of the law under civil process ; and be- 
fore the end of the year, so great were the debts upon 
it when Pomeroy took hold of it, and so deeply was it 
involved, that he lost all the materials of the office, and 



84 LIFE OF 

found himself one morning devoid of printing material, 
with a debt of over four thousand dollars on his shoul- 
ders, and not a dime in the world. 

He then went to Chicago, stated his case to S. P. 
Rounds, a prominent printer and dealer in printing ma- 
terials, who was once a poor boy like himself, who gave 
him credit for a hand-press and four hundred dollars' 
worth of type, with which he returned to La Crosse, 
and at once opened business again. 

From this second beginning was built up a property 
known as the " La Chosse Democrat," and at present 
he is holding real estate in La Crosse to the value of 
nearly two hundred thousand dollars, and has made 
the office one of the most valuable enterprises in the 
known world. 

When the office was taken from him the last time, 
under the laws of Wisconsin he had an exemption of 
two hundred dollars' worth of printing material, and, 
through the kindness of the sheriff, who was responsible 
to the parties for the safe keeping and delivery of the 
type and press of the old office when it should be called 
for, he was enabled to put the paper in type, and, though 
he did not actually own a dollar's worth of printing ma- 
terials, by having it printed every day on the press of a 
neighbor in a competing office, he issued the Democrat, 
contrary to the expectations and against the wishes of 
very many of his enemies, who wondered how it was 
that a man whose office was closed by the sheriff, and 



MARK M. POMEROY. 85 

who had not a dollar's worth of type in the world, could 
throw his paper on the street at the usual hour every 
afternoon, with no one knowing where it was printed 
and from whence it came. 



86 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Fomeroy's ideas of justice.— Ilis life is attempted.— He scorns to play 

the hypocrite. 

In the spring of I860 Mr. Pomeroy attended the ses- 
sion of the Democratic National Convention at Balti- 
more as a " Douglas" man, returned home after his 
nomination, organized a company of young men, known 
as the " Douglas Rangers," in opposition to the " Wide 
Awakes" who were then flourishing in this republican 
city. 

The paper was published at this time at no profit, the 
Republican majority in the congressional district, State, 
county, and city being overwhemningly against the 
Democrats : with not a man to aid him with money 
other than the payment for work honestly done and for 
the newspaper honestly furnished — with the Democrats 
of that section, poor, in all save pluck — publishing a 
Democratic newspaper in that part of Wisconsin, in a 
district where every other democratic newspaper had 
been starved out — was rather an up-hill business, but it 
was continued without interruption. 

When the war commenced, the paper — which Mr. 
Pomeroy called the " Democrat," having dropped the 



MARK M. TOMEUOY. 87 

word " Union" upon purchasing the third partner's 
interest, which he did as soon as he was able — took 
grounds against the coercion of the States, the depriving 
them of any of their rights under the Constitution, no 
matter what the States themselves saw fit to do — hold- 
ing that the rights they held were but held in trust for 
posterity. He was opposed to secession, for the reason 
that in his opinion the Confederation of the States 
framed by our fathers was intended to be perpetual, and 
that the West alone could not stem the tide of Radical- 
ism, which he clearly foresaw was intended to divide 
the South and West, and array them against each other's 
forces, — the one to help subjugate the other, and giving 
as a result the enslavement of both sections to the grasp- 
ing radical power of New England, which waged war 
against the producing sections of the country and 
against the young men, particularly the laboring men, 
of all sections. 

Mr. Pomeroy advocated and demanded for posterity 
the putting down of the Rebellion, which opposed the 
continuance of the Confederation of the States, which 
fired upon our national flag, and which sought to divide 
the Union, for two reasons : one was his love for the 
Union, the Constitution, the laws, and the Government 
of the founders of the Republic; the second, that we in 
time might have the South and West united for mutual 
protection against the policy and schemes of New Eng- 
aml, and the money-power which was growing up at 



88 LIFE OF 

the expense of patriotism, to strangle the industry of 
the future and involve not only the resident white 
working men of the North, but all new-comers who 
should seek to escape the taxation and the aristocracy 
of the old country by seeking a home in America under 
a promise of an even voice in the Government as soon as 
they became citizens; equal taxation for all, and a 
governmental protection to rich and poor alike. While 
insisting on the restoration of the Union and of the 
country and people to their allegiance to a common 
Constitution, which was binding on a part only as it 
was binding upon the whole, he criticised the acts of the 
administration and the unholy conduct of the war. 

He denounced as tyrannical, brutal, and unjust the 
imbecilities of Mr. Lincoln, and the usurpation of power 
appropriated by him, and those under him. He de- 
nounced as cowardly, wicked, infamous, and tyrannical 
the arrest of private citizens and their incarceration in 
dungeons for months, without a speedy trial by jury 
promised them by the Constitution of our country. He 
objected to the sacrifice of brave men, who were the 
fighting soldiers of the land, under a lot of incompetent 
officers taken from the " pot-houses" and " gutters" of 
the country because they were willing to become the 
tools of a wicked, unjust, unprincipled, tyrannical, and 
despotic administration. 

He was strongly opposed to the continuation of the 
war for the purpose of plunder only, and for the idea 



MARK M. P03IER0T. 89 

of keeping in power an administration that was clearly- 
known to be against the interests of the very people 
who were sustaining it. 

Mr. Ponieroy strongly opposed the issuing of United 
States bonds as antagonistic to American interests, argu- 
ing that the debts which were then being created were 
at the expense of those who were doing the fighting, 
and for the benefit of those who remained at home, and 
who were by the legislation of the administration of 
Lincoln protected and exempted from taxation. He 
opposed firmly, earnestly, and conscientiously the sacri- 
leQ-ious disregard of the Constitution under the plea 
of " military necessity," holding that the Constitution 
was sufficient to protect the people in time of war as 
well as in time of peace. He criticised the administra- 
tion always honestly, but often with great severity, and 
was on several occasions offered by Mr. Lincoln, through 
prominent Republican politicians of the West and East, 
commissions in the army and places of high authority 
if he would consent to indorse the war as a whole, and 
to indorse its manner of prosecution, and to refrain from 
criticising the President on the plea or excuse that the 
President was the Government and could never do any 
wrong. These offers were refused on every occasion, 
and Mr. Pomeroy continued his war against the course 
pursued as against the rights of the States and the 
people, and against the interests of this and future gen- 
erations of working men and producers. 



90 LIFE OF 

On several occasions Mr. Ponieroy's life was threat- 
ened and attempted. A number of times was his office 
in danger of being destroyed by mobs, and was pro- 
tected by the citizens of La Crosse, who gave the infu- 
riated masses to understand that the destruction of his 
property or the spilling of one drop of his blood, or the 
destruction of the property of any Democrat, or the 
spilling of one drop of Democratic blood there, would 
be followed by the entire destruction of the city, regard- 
less of all and any consequences that might follow. 

He took the ground that as long as there was a law, 
to that law he was amenable, and to it he owed alle- 
giance ; that he owed allegiance to the law, for the reason % 
that it had a right to punish and had power to protect 
the citizen ; that when it failed to hold or exercise the 
power to protect citizens, it was no longer a law, and 
incapable of protecting or inflicting a punishment ; and 
that when it failed to protect the citizen in his rights it 
ceased to become a law, and he owed it from that time 
no allegiance, was justified in defending himself, and 
that from the moment he was in danger of losing life or 
property from the weakness of the law or its inability to 
protect him, no act of the person threatened could add 
to his danger. On being sent out of the army in Ar- 
kansas, in 1862, he said to the general who sent him : 

" Sir, to-day is yours — to-morrow will be mine ; for, 
with your record and my record I will go to the people, 
and they shall decide." 



MARK M. POMEROY. 91 

He wrote to a friend : 

" The army is rotten : not in its body, but its heads. 
The war is dishonest. It was begun by the people on 
one side to save themselves, on the other to save the 
Union ; but it has become, through the corruption of 
Lincoln's court and official minions, but a murderous 
crusade for plunder and party power. Its aim is to 
create a moneyed aristocracy — compel the people to 
support it — and the time shall come, if God will spare 
my life, when the people who are being murdered shall 
know the crime committed against them. I will gain 
an audience first, and then — woe betide the party now in 
power. I will be no party to this robbery. They may 
denounce me, but their children will not, for they shall 
know the truth." 

The criticism on the Administration was kept up from 
its first usurpation of power, and its first disregard of 
the rights of the people both North and South, until the 
death of Mr. Lincoln, and then upon his followers from 
that time on. 

At the time of President Lincoln's assassination, 
Pomeroy was at his home sick, having just arisen from 
the bed and able to sit in an easy-chair, anxiously wait- 
ing the time when in the physician's opinion he could 
go to the office and to the labors of the sanctum. During 
the forenoon of the day following the tragedy, while sit- 
ting in an easy-chair, an employe of the office came run- 
ning up with a dispatch stating that Lincoln had been 



92 LIFE OF 

killed and that Seward was not expected to live, his life 
having been attempted. In a short time another courier 
from the office came with the announcement that the 
greatest excitement prevailed on the business streets of 
the city, and that there was evidence of approaching 
trouble from the hands of a mob of Republicans, who 
claimed the assassination as the work of the Democratic 
party. . He stated also that it was threatened to at once 
destroy the office of the La Crosse Democrat, for the 
reason that during the campaign of 1864, while the po- 
litical excitement was at fever-heat, Mr. Pomeroy had 
in his paper declared that if Lincoln was elected to mis- 
govern the country for the next four years, as he had 
for the past four, by the powder of the bayonet over the 
ballot, he trusted that some bold hand with a dagger- 
point would pierce Lincoln's heart for the public good. 
These were bolder words than were, ever before spoken 
under the administration of the one Pomeroy called a 
tyrant. The second courier was followed by the third, 
who stated that it was getting "red-hot" down town, 
and without a doubt the office would be torn down and 
its material thrown into the Mississippi river. 

The employes of the office wished to know what 
should be done, whether to fight or to leave. This 
courier was followed by a letter* from a Republican 
business man of the city, stating that, as Mr. Lincoln 
had been killed, the people were in a fearful state of ex- 
citement, and were arranging for the immediate destruc- 



MARK M. POMEEOT. 03 

tion of the Democrat office, and the killing of the editor 
thereof at once. He' urged Mr. Pomeroy to take the 
fastest team he could get, leave the city for some place 
of security till night came, when he could escape the 
country, unless he wished to die at the hands of the 
mob, the excitement being so great it would be impos- 
sible to restrain the mob, as the Republicans were 
already fired with indignation at the course of the 
Democrat (the paper even the Government dare not 
suppress for fear of consequences), and at its continued 
and bitter denunciations of Mr.' Lincoln, his cabinet, 
and the entire conduct and management of the war, 
which Pomerov termed but a murderous crusade for 
plunder and illegal power. 

Knowing that Mr. Pomeroy's means were limited, he 
offered to furnish money, if necessary — anxious, he said, 
"to save his life, although he should be unable to do 
anything towards saving the printing-office property." 

In reply to this kindly written letter from a political 
opponent, but a personal friend, Mr. Pomeroy despatched 
the cashier of his office, who by this time had come to 
his house, with a note to the mayor of the city, telling 
him that he, Pomeroy, had certain rights as a citizen, 
which rights he intended to defend till his death. That 
he should look to the mayor of the city, the city mar- 
shal, the sheriff, and other officers of the city and county, 
to do their duty and protect the property of citizens; 
and if they failed to perform that duty, he himself should 



94 > LIFE OF 

hold all of the officers personally responsible for any 
damage done to his property, or for any demand upon 
his life ; and that if his office was destroyed by a mob, 
the city of La Crosse would either pay for it within 
twenty-four hours to the fullest extent of its value, in- 
cluding material and good-will, or he would with his 
own hands set fire to every Republican house, store, or 
place of business that he could reach in the city, and 
should take revenge to the fullest extent of those who 
had brought upon him this destruction, by every means 
in his power ; by rifle and by pistol ; by knife, by fire, 
by poison, in season and out of season ; careful always 
to save his own life for the accomplishment of as much 
injury as he could do to those who would not regard the 
law. That, so far as his property was concerned, he did 
not care for the loss of it, but he had certain rights as a 
citizen, which rights he intended to have given him. 
That his life might be taken, might be sacrificed at any 
moment, but he should not leave the city, nor would he 
defend his office, nor would he take any steps for the 
preservation of property and life other than to com- 
pletely arm himself, and to notify the members of a 
little club which then existed in La Crosse that one of 
its members was in danger ; and that, if any one of the 
members should fall in the-defence of his rights, it would 
be the duty and the pleasure of all other members to 
settle with those who had gone outside of the law to 
commit a wron<j. 



MARK M. rOMEEOY. 95 

Unable to leave his house, anxious to avoid a riot, 
wishing that there might be no destruction of his prop- 
erty, which would lead to the destruction of thousands 
and thousands of dollars' worth of property of innocent 
men, he sent to a few prominent Republicans of the 
city, who called upon him about the hour of noon, when 
he told them very plainly and earnestly that he should 
defend himself, and that they must defend his property 
unless they wished to see their own destroyed. He told 
them that he might not be able to effect the destruction 
of that property at that time, but he would in time, till 
he had settled with his enemies in full. He threw the 
entire responsibility of the affair from his shoulders to 
theirs, so far as his property was concerned or the prop- 
erty of other citizens, taking upon himself only the task 
of defending himself against all attacks from whatever 
source. He then sent down town for more firearms. 
The lady members of the household with baskets re- 
moved all the loose stones, pieces of brick, and other 
articles of such nature, which would be handy when 
used by a mob, and calmly awaited events. Night 
came, the office was still untouched. The employes had 
sworn to defend it to the last extremity, although he 
sent word to them that he did not wish them to peril 
their lives. If the office was destroyed he would 
take care of the matter himself, and not ask them to 
place themselves in jeopardy. This request they refused 
to honor, but remained near the building watching it 



96 LIFE OF 

with anxious hearts. Soon after dark the excitement 
in town was at its greatest height. A number of per- 
sons caring for nothing, with no regard for law, order, 
or the rights of any person, anxious to still add to the 
flame of excitement, went about the city from store to 
store, from saloon to saloon, compelling people to give 
into their hands various sums of money varying from 
ten cents to a dollar, as the possessor might have about 
his pockets, which money was to be used for buying a 
rope and procuring the painting of a large banner, with 
which banner it was the intention of the mob, which 
had grown to be very large, to march to the printing- 
office, demolish the same, break up the machinery, 
and throw all the office-material into the river. This 
done, the procession was then to march to Mr. Pome- 
roy's house, take him from thence, drag him by the 
rope to the public square, where he was to be executed, 
cut down, cut into four quarters, and a quarter of his 
body burnt in each of the four wards of the city, as a 
warning to all traitors. This party of rioters, drunken 
with whisky and excitement, reckless as to what they 
attempted, threatened mischief; and, but for the earnest, 
continued, and laborious exertions of very many of the 
leading Republicans of the city, the pastor of the 
Catholic church, and the mayor in person, no one knows 
what the result of that night's carnival would have 
been. Better counsels prevailed. Morning came — the 
office stood as it did previously. 



MARK M. POMEEOY. . 97 

The paper had come out the night before at its ap- 
pointed hour, announcing the death of Mr. Lincoln, 
stating that he had been called to his home, wherever 
that home might be ; that he was a good man — so called 
— but not a great one ; with some other remarks we do 
not now remember. The excitement of the night before 
by morning sun had cooled some ; and some of the par- 
ticipants in the "forced collection business," had be- 
come somewhat ashamed of their proceedings the night 
before, and the better counsel of their cooler and more 
honorable neighbors prevailed. But the trouble was 
not over with yet. The afternoon following the recep- 
tion of the news of Lincoln's death, Mr. Pomeroy, who 
did not leave the house, and who was ready at all times 
of the day or night to receive visitors, come they Avith 
evil or good intent, was so far recovered as to be able to 
visit the office, and there learned that the mob, which 
had been commenced the night before, was that night 
to continue its work, when the office was certainly to be 
demolished, and the editor of the paper disposed of as 
contemplated the night previous. A young friend told 
him that in a certain paint-shop a large sign was in pro- 
cess of making— the same being in form of a banner 
made of black cloth, on which were painted certain 
threatening words in lar^e, white letters, and which 
banner was to head the procession that night. Thank- 
ing his friend for the information, with a couple of re- 
volvers in his pockets, he went to the paint-shop and 

5 



98 LIFE OF 

asked to see the banner that was being made there for 
the mourners of Mr. Lincoln. The painter denied the ex- 
istence of any such banner : said he knew nothing of it : 
that none had been ordered, and was very much sur- 
prised that such a report should have reached Mr. Poni- 
eroy. The editor of the Democrat, not believing the 
statement of the painter, asked to step into another 
room in the building, to which the owner of the prem- 
ises objected. But by a peculiarly persuasive argument 
sometimes adopted by men in danger, he prevailed up 
on the painter to open the door, and there, upon 
stretchers, was a large, black flag, nearly the size of an 
ordinary door, on which was painted in large, white 
letters, the words, "JVb quarter to traitors ! Commence 
at home /" Following up his peculiarly persuasive rea- 
soning, thrice armed as he was — once with the justice 
of his cause, and twice with the revolvers — he learned 
that the banner had been ordered by the sheriff of the 
county, a Republican in politics, and two of the sheriff's" 
friends. Securing the promise that the banner should 
never go from his place till it was taken from thence by 
the ones who had ordered it, in company with Mr. 
Symes, a young man — superintendent of the office — 
who was also armed, as night was approaching, he went 
to the sheriff's office, whose residence was in the large 
stone building occupied for prison purposes, and made 
known his errand, which was to know why that banner 
was ordered, and who, besides the sheriff, had ordered it. 



MARK M. POMEROY, 99 

A scene ensued, the result of which was, Pomeroy 
was informed that two other parties whom he had 
always looked upon as his friends in town, had. with 
the sheriff, ordered the banner. He waited upon one 
of the parties, found him at tea, as the sheriff was at 
his supper when called upon, and with the second 
party to the transaction returned to the jail, entered 
the same, and had a talk, and a very plain one it was 
too, we understand, with the two principal men who 
had ordered the banner with which they proposed to 
head their procession. The effect of this conversation 
was, that as officers of law he called for them to at once 
go forth and put a stop, so far as lay in their power, to 
all riotous or demonstrative proceedings threatening the 
peace of the city. He demanded, also, that that flag, 
on which several dollars had been paid, should be 
taken from its place in the paint -shop by the one who 
had ordered it, and at early morning, as soon as he 
should have reached his office, that the flag should be 
given him, and, in case of refusal, in case the mob was 
allowed to proceed, he would telegraph to the governor 
of the State the particulars, and demand the arrest of 
the parties, call for official help to preserve the peace 
and property of the city ; and- in case this help should 
not come to him, he would then take the law in his own 
hands and settle at once, or soon as in his judgment he 
could safely do so, with those who were warring upon 
him, his rights, the peace and good name of the city. 



100 LIFE OF 

The result of the move was, that the office was saved, 
the mob was scattered, the threatened riot was averted, 
the editor of the paper slept soundly, while a few faith- 
ful friends watched about the city, and the next morn- 
ing by half-past seven, the flag, safely wrapped in a 
newspaper, was handed to him at his office-door by the 
man who had ordered it, and who expressed sorrow 
that anything of the kind should have come up, and 
said that nothing of the kind would have occurred had 
not the boys felt sorrowful over the death of Mr. Lin- 
coln, become a little excited, and, aided by lager-beer 
and whisky, had proposed a little demonstration to 
prove their loyalty, and to punish by their own means 
and plans the man who, for years, had warred upon Mr. 
Lincoln, who had advocated his assassination, and had, 
without doubt in their minds, been instrumental indi- 
rectly, if not directly, in the taking off of the Executive. 
While this performance was going on, the Republican 
newspaper of the city, edited by a man entirely devoid 
of principle, with no honest or patriotic feeling in his 
heart, anxious only to create a disturbance, from and by 
which he might reap some advantage or notoriety to 
himself, had filled his newspaper forms with several col- 
umns of the most bitter articles Mr. Pomeroy had ever 
written, copied from his paper — articles bitter in denun- 
ciation of the President and the conduct of the war — 
articles reflecting severely upon the Administration, and 
especially the editor we have spoken of before, in which 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 101 

he called for some bold hand to pierce with a dagger- 
point the heart of the Chief Magistrate of the nation. 
The object of filling his columns with this matter was 
to work the populace up to the greatest excitement, and 
to secure the destruction of the printing-office, and the 
death of a competitor in business. He also proposed to 
show, if not his devotion to law, his excessive loyalty 
and devotion to wickedness. Through some means or 
other the better class of Republicans of the city hearing 
of this effort to still farther inflame the minds of the 
populace, visited his office and compelled the Republican 
editor to take out the extracts he had made from Mr. 
Ponieroy's paper, and to put his paper to press, with 
them, in a great manner or measure, omitted. 

Among the curiosities of Mr. Pomeroy's sanctum — 
and they are very numerous, and many of them valuable, 
to each of which there is a history replete with interest 
— there is none more dark in its evidence of intended 
guilt than the large black flag, of which we have spoken 
just now, nailed up in the club-room of the office as a 
relic of times not long since passed by. 

At the time of the death of Mr. Lincoln, the circula- 
tion of the La Crosse Democrat was less than one hun- 
dred and fifty copies per week, including exchanges. 
The postmaster refused to deliver it to the mails — men 
carried or read it at the peril of their lives. Persons in 
different parts of the country have often been mobbed 
for having it in their possession or expressing belief in 



102 LIFE OF 

the sentiments of its editor, but it kept steadily on, 
earnestly, consistently, and persistent in the discharge 
of what seemed an editorial and patriotic duty, regard- 
less of threats or loss of patronage, or promise of sup- 
port — regardless of menaces or dangers of mobs, or of 
the advice of weak-minded or weak-kneed friends — with- 
out the employment of agents, until it has grown — 
simply from its adhesion to its great principles of Amer- 
ican liberty, equal taxation and equal protection for all, 
rich and poor — from an obscure newspaper published in 
a new and, until the existence of the paper, an unknown 
Western city — to be the leading Democratic paper of 
the United States, with a circulation of over three hun- 
dred thousand copies weekly, and the establishment of 
two extensive printing-houses, one on the Mississippi 
River and the other on the Hudson, the better to carry 
on its business. 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 103 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Office of the La Crosse Democrat.— Why he left La Crosse. 

The office of the celebrated La Crosse Democrat, in 
La Crosse, Wisconsin, is situated upon the corner of 
Main and Fourth streets, and is one hundred and twenty- 
feet deep and eighty-five feet wide. The building is 
constructed entirely of iron, stone, and brick, and is 
four stories high, exclusive of the basement story of 
fifteen feet. 

The front portion of the basement is used for a mail- 
ing room, and from that room over three hundred thou- 
sand of the La Crosse Democrat each week have been 
sent into the world. Connecting with this room is a 
fire-proof vault, fourteen feet square, in which is kept 
the immense number of the subscription and commercial 
books which necessarily Mr. Pomeroy must have. It 
also contains the filed letters received from subscribers, 
and letters containing the political history of his en- 
emies. 

The press-room is in the rear of the mailing depart- * 
ment, in which can be found three of Hoe's fastest power- 
presses, which are constantly employed ; also three light- 
ning folders, each having the capacity of folding 



104 LIFE OF 

three thousand papers per hour. Back of the press- 
room is the engine-room, where can be seen the most 
complete and beautiful model engine ever made. The 
room also contains two force-pumps, with five hundred 
feet of rubber hose, which can, in case of fire, be laid 
and in operation in one minute. Adjoining this is the 
boiler-room, containing two boilers, both of which are 
always in order, so that, in case of accident, one is 
always ready to supply the place of the broken one. 

The immense quantity of paper for the use of the 
office is stored in another room, and also in the large 
arched vaults under the sidewalk adjoining the engine- 
room. 

The counting-room, which is divided into four smaller 
apartments, is in the front portion of the first floor. 
The workmanship of this room is perfect, the heaviest 
and finest French glass being use$. in the windows both 
outside and inside the room. 

Around the lobby of the counting-room, reaching up 
to the ceiling, are over one hundred cases of stuffed 
wild animals, fowls, reptiles, etc., comprising in a whole 
a beautiful and instructive museum. 

The counting-room contains four offices: 1st. The 
Superintendent's; 2d. Assistant Superintendent's; 3d. 
: Cashier's ; 4th. Subscription Clerk's. A staircase leads 
to the mailing-room from these offices. 

A door in the rear of the counting-room leads into a 
fine hal], which is the public entrance to the stairs 



MARK M. POMEROY. 105 

leading to the sanctum. This hall is beautifully fres- 
coed and handsomely carpeted : upon its right is the 
private entrance door from Fourth-street. Another 
door opposite the counting-room leads to the stock- 
room, which is well filled with the finest job stock. In 
this room can be found the engraving department, 
where two artists are kept busy all the time getting out 
designs and cuts for the paper. 

In the job-room, which adjoins this, the finest job- 
printing in the Western States is done. 

On the second floor we find the Associate Editor's 
room, which is well lighted, and contains beautiful 
furniture and desks. The next room is occupied by 
the Assistant Editor. We pass through a hall on the 
second floor and find ourselves in the sanctum, which is 
acknowledged by all who have seen it to be the 
handsomest furnished room in the United States, and is 
far superior to the sanctum of any printing-office in the 
world. 

The floor is carpeted with the finest Brussels, the 
curtains are of rich lace and velvet rep, the walls. are 
completely covered with paintings from the great 
masters, while all around upon the different what-nots 
can be seen countless numbers of photographs of 
friends, relics, keepsakes, and all kinds of trinkets, 
every one of which Mr. Pomeroy treasures very highly. 

Upon one side of the room is a magnificent side- 
board well filled with decanters and glasses, through 

5* 



106 LIFE OP 

which visitors can, if they wish, see darkly ; but it must 
be fully understood that Mr. Pomeroy never takes the 
oath himself. 

Near the centre of the room is a splendid piano, 
which is of a superior tone and elaborately carved. 
Adjoining the sanctum is a luxuriant bed-chamber, 
which is tastefully and beautifully furnished with a 
large black walnut bedstead and necessary chamber 
furniture. Opening into the bed-chamber is a bath- 
room with all the modern improvements, hot and cold 
water, etc. 

The first room in the rear of the third floor is the 
composing-room, which is constructed differently from 
any other in the country. Instead of having the cases 
stand upon the floor in the old fashioned way they are 
suspended from the ceiling. 

A steam elevator carries the forms from this room to 
the press-room in the basement below. 

"We then find a closet or wash-room for the use of 
the employes on this floor, for Mr. Pomeroy, in his 
consideration for working men, arranges, as far as lies 
in his power, so that his men may have all possible 
comforts. 

The next room is occupied by the stereotypers, where 
the plates are cast from the impressions taken upon 
papier mache from the forms made up in the composing- 
room. 

After leaving this room we pass into the club-room, 



MARK M. POMEROY. 107 

which has been fitted up in the finest style for the 
employes, who pass their evenings and leisure hours 
here in reading, writing, and playing harmless games. 
This room is carpeted with fine Brussels, has a very 
laro-e bookcase filled with the works of standard au- 
thors. 

The corners and niches are filled with curiosities and 
relics from all parts of the globe. There you may 
exercise your muscle with dumb-bells weighing from 
five to fifty-three and three-quarter pounds, the latter 
bells being Mr. Pomeroy's especial pets. 

In the hall we find a wardrobe, which is divided into 
compartments, in which each man upon that floor can 
keep his clothing. 

Another stairway leads into a vacant hall, which will 
soon be fitted up as a book-bindery. The whole build- 
ing is heated with steam, and lit with gas which is 
manufactured in a small gas-house a short distance 
from the office. The whole building is as completely 
fire-proof as any in the country. 

On the corner of Main and Fourth streets is a corner- 
stone of the finest white Italian marble with the fol- 
lowing inscriptions. On the east side is a hand grasp- 
ing a dagger, with the inscription " Principia no?i 
homines" above it, and below is engraven " Nemo me 
impime lacessiV On the north side you will see 
" Democrat — M. M. Pomeroy." 
This stone was laid with appropriate Masonic honors, 



108 LIFE OF 

the full force of city officials, and the largest concourse 
of citizens ever seen together in that city was present 
upon that occasion. 

The building adjoining the office, erected this sum- 
mer by Mr. Pomeroy, is sixty-five feet wide and the 
same heighth and depth as the office. The ground 
floors are used as store-rooms, the second floors as 
offices, etc., while the third and fourth stories are used 
as an opera house, the only one in La Crosse. 

This is also heated with steam, and lit with gas made 
in the same building as that for the office. 

Mr. Pomeroy intends fitting up the opera house in 
the handsomest style. 

We wish to impress our readers with the richness of 
these buildings sinrply because eight years ago their 
owner did not have sufficient food, or money to buy it 
with, for himself and family. 

Mr. Pomeroy has devoted both time and money to 
the improvement of La Crosse, which city has become 
identified with him as the field of his wonderful success, 
and the people should use every effort to retain him as 
a citizen. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 109 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Success of the La Crosse Democrat.— Milk and water evaporated by 

caustic. 

The marvellous success of the "La iJrosse Lew* 
ocrat" is undoubtedly to be attributed to its bold and, 
at times, almost savage spirit against the men and the 
measures of the party in power, coupled with what 
have been called its extreme Democratic views. 

At the close of the war there were here and there 
Democrats ail over the country of a bolder spirit, higher 
courage, and more positive principles than the mass of 
those calling themselves Democrats, who had opposed 
all the measures of the Republican party during the 
war and had suffered for it. They had been socially 
and politically proscribed, many of them mobbed and 
personally maltreated, their property destroyed, and 
not a few of them had been seized and held as political 
prisoners in Federal forts and other places of confine- 
ment solely on account of the expression of opinions 
unpalatable to the men in power. 

Such men as these, and all brave, true, earnest men 
who were Democrats in principle, were sick of the milk- 
and-water, cowardly, half Republican newspapers which 
had passed for Democratic during the war, and wanted 



110 LIFE OF 

an outspoken and fearless champion of truth and right 
to speak for Democracy and the paper. 

They found it in the La Crosse Democrat. In addi- 
tion to the qualities already attributed, Mr. Pomeroy 
infused into it his own personal enthusiasm and indom- 
itable individuality, by which the paper became not 
only a faithful exponent of Democratic principles, a 
fierce, audacious, savage assailant of power, but a part 
of the man himself, a mirror of his thoughts and feel- 
ings, as rapidly thrown off from his wonderfully active 
and untiring brain, and a perfect expression of his 
driving and aspiring spirit. 

It is no wonder that the paper grew rapidly in circu- 
lation. It touched as with live coals the hearts of the 
Democratic masses, and kindled them into enthusiasm 
and infused into them hope and courage. The people 
were always right, but their leaders were false and 
betrayed them. The people rallied to the support of 
the Democrats as this became known to them. They 
were all athirst for truth. They hungered for old- 
fashioned Democratic principles. They found in the 
Democrat something that met their great want. 
They recognized it as their friend, their defender, the 
undaunted advocate of their opinions and interests. 

Whenever a copy found its way into a neighborhood, 
it was read and re-read by the whole democratic bro- 
therhood. 



MARK M. POMEEOY. Ill 

Having read one number, they felt an unconquerable 
longing for more. Of course they subscribed for it. 
Clubs were formed, and it was taken in large numbers. 
So it spread and is still spreading. It is to-day found 
in every part of the land, far away in its remotest set- 
tlements. It is the great exponent of democratic opinion 
for the whole country ; and its work is not done. Its 
mission is not ended. It has before it years of labor 
and struggle, before the country will be fully redeemed 
from the consequences of political misrule. It has still 
work to do, and it will do it. As it represents the 
people, it will be sustained by them. Common interests, 
common dangers, and a common glory in the triumph 
of the right, bind them together in indissoluble bonds. 
It is proper to say, in this connection, that probably no 
one thing has added more to the universal popularity 
of the Democrat than its bold advocacy of repudiation 
of the national debt. It was the first press in the coun- 
try to take this position, and is now its only prominent 
advocate ; but this will be the next great political issue 
between parties, however the coming election may turn, 
but more surely if Geant shall be elected, than if he 
shall be defeated. 

Maek M. Pomeeoy will be the acknowledged head 
of this grand and patriotic movement. His paper, as 
heretofore, will stand at the head of the geeat aemy of 
industry, and lead it to victory. 



112 LIFE OF 

On this issue he will cany the country by storm in 
1872, when the people will rejoice in a deliverance, for 
which, to him, more than any other man, they will be 
indebted. Then will come his great and j ust reward. 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 113 



CHAPTER XV. 

Treating of Mr. Pomeroy's manner of conducting a printing-office.— His 

kindness to his employes. 

Mr. Pomeroy's history and career in La Crosse are 
striking evidences of what can be accomplished by 
pluck, devotion to principle, habits of economy, busi- 
ness skill, and a determination to succeed. He went 
there in the spring of 1860, with less than $5.00 in his 
pocket, to establish, by work, a Democratic paper in a 
Republican district. 

Many of his friends advised him not to go into a 
district politically against him, and urged the necessity 
of his going to New York and trying in a large city to 
develop the resources of his genius that friends gave 
him the credit of possessing. He was advised to let the 
political field alone, and to devote his time and atten- 
tion to writing humorous articles and sketches for pa- 
pers, and to become, if possible, a magazine editor, and 
to devote his time to book-making. He would not 
consent to this, but preferred, as he said to some friend 
in Milwaukee, " to go where the political fight was the 
thickest, and work earnestly in hope to help his party, 
and if he could not help those who held the same prin- 



114 LITE OP 

ciples as himself, he wanted, at least, to find some place 
where there was an enemy on whom he could wring his 
blows." 

La Crosse was, therefore, the field for him. The Re- 
publican majority was counted by thousands in that 
section. The country was new ; the city was new ; the 
man was poor. The harvest was sadly in need of 
reapers there, and he at once entered upon the work. 

His La Crosse Democrat should be an encouragement 
to every poor printer in the land. We do not mean 
poor printers , but printers who are poor. 

It shows what a man can do by work. It shows 
what results may be brought about by a mechanic, by a 
laboring man, by a young man, if he is only persistent 
in well-doing. The office, when he purchased an inter- 
. est therein, was but a small affair, worth less than the 
jewelry he now carries upon his person. It was in bad 
order. The circulation of the paper amounted to noth- 
ing. The business of the office was insufficient to pay 
its expenses. The material was dirty, and needed to be 
put in shape. The office had been run on credit, and 
had been run into bankruptcy. Scarcely a dealer in 
any kind of goods in La Crosse but what had a bill 
against the establishment, editors, or employes. The 
credit of the concern was worthless. The office owed 
the employes nearly $1,000 for labor and services ren- 
dered, while the debts to tradesmen, boarding-house 
keepers, and other business men of the place were 



MAEK M. POMEROY. 115 

legion. On taking hold of the office, the first business 
of Mr. Pomeroy was to put it in repair, clean it up, put 
things in shape, sweep out, mop out, clean the windows, 
clean the ink, oil, and dirt from the machinery, put the 
type in order, and give the place an air of business. 
This was looked upon as a waste of time and money by 
his other partners. 

It had always been a rule with Mr. Pomeroy, that 
success could only follow order ; that prosperity fol- 
lowed neatness, punctuality, and devotion to business. 
He put the new office in order, making a place for 
everything, and gave orders that everything must be 
kept in place, machinery kept clean, type kept in order ; 
that the men employed about the establishment, instead 
of spending their time in billiard-saloons and in the 
office playing various games during working hours, as 
had been the custom before he took possession of the 
establishment, must confine their attention to their 
work, and remain in the office during business hours. 

This little change effected a saving of twenty-five per 
cent., it being found that too many men were employed 
in the establishment, and that the time somebody was 
paying for was being frittered away in places where it 
ought not to be. Conversing with one of the employes 
of the establishment, who has been with Mr. Pomeroy 
for years, we use his exact words as nearly as possible : 

" Pomeroy had not been in the office, as proprietor or 
part proprietor, more than thirty minutes before us em- 



116 LIFE OP 

ployes found that there was a new man at the wheel. 
The greasy pack of cards was thrown out of the window. 
The old checkerboard was slashed into the street, and 
half-a-dozen old pipes went through the window. People 
were set to clearing up, putting things in order, and it 
seemed as if it was the intention of somebody that that 
office was to do business in the future, instead of being a 
sort of loafing-place for those who did not work, for the 
bothering of those who did. He argued that those who 
labored should be promptly on time. That they must 
stay there till the hour of departure. He put a stop to 
the employing of drunken printers, and compelled a 
neatness and attention to business that the office had 
never before known. All who were working in the 
establishment seemed at once to catch the infection of 
business, and felt that success would follow. The sec- 
ond day of Mr. Pomeroy's ownership of the office, in 
talking with the men as they were standing about the 
composing-stone, he said to them, that the office could 
be made to pay. That it did not pay, through the mis- 
management of those connected with it. That too many 
men had been employed. That there was too much 
waste, and it must be stopped. He said he wanted only 
good printers about him, and good men ; and he used, 
as near as we can remember, this language : ' Now, 
boys, there is a prospect of a hard time for all of us. 



MARK M. POMEIIOY. 117 



You have worked here in this office a long time, and it 
owes you a good deal of money. You have not collected 
your wages as you should have done. It was the duty 
of the managers to pay you every Saturday night. You 
have suffered your wages to be kept away from you. 
This is an injustice to your families. You have squan- 
dered your time, many of you, playing games here in the 
office during business hours, or at places of amusement 
or dissipation, when you ought to be at rest. If during 
business hours, it was an injustice to your employers; 
if after business hours, it was an injustice to yourself. 

" ' Now I want to make a success of this newspaper. I 
want to make a printing-office that will be a credit to 
all of us. We are all interested. If I succeed, you suc- 
ceed ; if I fail, you fail. The office owes you a good deal 
of money now. It cannot pay you till it earns it. If 
you will take hold and work I will -go on the streets and 
solicit business. I will procure job-work. I want you 
folks to do it in the office ; if you don't know how to do 
it well, I will teach you. If you can do it well and 
don't, I don't want you. This is a fair bargain, you 
work for me and I will pay you for it. In working for 
me, you work for yourselves. The money this office 
owes you you shall have. I will agree to pay every 
Saturday night your earnings, if you want your money 
then. I would prefer to pay you then, rather than have 
you give me credit. Your old accounts I will pay you 



118 LIFE OF 

as fast as we can get the money. It is expected that I 
am to manage the concern, look out for the finances, 
and make a newspaper here. 

" * If you will take care of the details, I will take care of 
the rest. I will try and make a paper interesting to the 
reader, and you make it neat in appearance, you keep 
the office neat, and we will all get along together. I 
want to be your friend, and I want you to be mine. So 
long as you are gentlemanly and attentive to business, 
I shall do everything I can to farther your interests, and 
when you are no longer gentlemen, you can no longer 
have employment in the office. You stand by me and 
I will stand by you. The office is unable to pay large 
wages, but I am going to make it a paying concern, if 
it takes years to do it, which will not be only able to pay 
good salaries ; and to those who are the most faithful to 
the office and are the best deserving, will I in future give 
better positions than they are now having, and better 
salaries, that they may be perfectly contented with their 
situations, and that the partnership between employer 
and employe may be mutually beneficial.' " 



MAEK M. POMEROY. 119 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Why Mr. Pomeroy is popular as a writer. 

The great object of a writer is to be read. How 
much he is read frequently depends upon his style, and 
this country has produced no journalist whose style is 
as proverbially popular as that of " Brick Pomeroy." 
It is characterized by a union of grace and ease, point 
and power, fancy and force, vigor and vim, perspicuity 
and perspicacity. 

The imagery with which he illustrates an argument 
delights us while we are made to feel the ratiocination 
is conclusive. 

The witticisms that his diamond-pointed pen dashes 
off as it gallops over sheet after sheet of foolscap, 
while plunging through the discussion of subjects often 
bare of interest, remind one of the fire we often see fly 
from the sterile rock under the steel-shod hoof of an 
impetuous charger. 

It is his wonderful brilliancy of style to which he is 
doubtless indebted for the unparalleled popularity of his 
flourishing journals. The wing of his fancy knows no 
weariness— the freshness of his flowers seems to be 
fadeless ; he takes prudent care, however, not to smother 
facts with metaphors. His object is always to either 



120 LIFE OF 

furnish information or to throw the light of practical 
sense upon facts already well enough known, but not 
well enough understood. 

One of his fortes is ridicule ; he seems to have found a 
lesson in Don Quixote, and studied it well. Seeing Cer- 
vantes drive knight-errantry into an eternal hermitage 
before the red-hot shots of his waggery, " Brick," being 
fortunately endowed with the lively keen sense of the 
ludicrous, opens the batteries of his humor upon what- 
ever he opposes, until he forces the world to join him in 
laughing it down. His caricatures are, however, free 
from malice, and personal piques never show themselves 
in his editorials. 

Another one of his controlling traits of character is, 
his independence — an independence that is, in the 
largest sense of the term, manly. Journalists generally 
seek to ascertain how the people feel toward them, and 
trim their sails accordingly. 

Some papers have stooped to boast that they followed 
public opinion. Mr. Pomeroy pursues whatever policy 
is dictated to him by the convictions of his conscience. 
He is, in his fidelity to truth, incorruptible. Endowed 
as he is with a remarkably sanguine temperament, he 
may, in a glow of enthusiasm, color rather richly some 
facts he may have to paint, but that the canvas on 
which he employs his brush is solid material, never 
fails to be literally true. 

Courage is the best companion independence can 



MARK M. POMEIIOY. 121 

have, and "Brick" is distinguished for nothing more 
than he is for his utter fearlessness. His independence, 
in fact, is the natural offspring of a profound contempt 
for danger — great decision, and immutable firmness. 
These high qualities conspire to eminently prepare him 
to become, what he already is, one of the people's truest 
tribunes. Anions other characteristics which belong to 
him in a rare degree is his exalted sense of justice. 
That which is right becomes, in his judgment and 
regard, sacred, because it is right. Haughty he never 
is to the humble, nor is he humble to the haughty. He 
has more respect for virtuous rags than he has for vicious 
ribbons, and he scorns to conceal either his contempt or 
sympathy. 

That laro-e, blue eve of his does not "know how to 
look a lie. There is no terror in other men's money for 
his unquailing spirit. His bearing is the same in the 
presence of millionaires that it is in the presence of beg- 
gars. He has a far deeper reverence for the white hairs 
of an honest pauper than he has for the white liver of a 
tricky nabob, no matter what his party professions 

It is when we look into the elements of which his re- 
markable character is composed that we cease to wonder 
at the growth of his fame. It is only once in a century 
Providence sends us a man endowed with so many ex- 
alted virtues and wonderful attributes — all, too, under 
the care, as it were, of superhuman energy and indom- 
itable will. 

6 



122 LIFE OF 

As a politician, Mr. Pomeroy takes broad and com- 
prehensive views of public policy, and seems to thor- 
oughly understand the fundamental principles of polit- 
ical economy upon which constitutional liberty is 
established. 

He is an earnest Democrat, but his democracy is the 
result of principle, not partisanship. Were the Democ- 
racy in power to-morrow, and its leaders in office were 
to prostitute their official positions to private purposes 
of pelf, no Radical in the land would denounce them 
any quicker or more fiercely than he would. 

He is in his private character without a stain, and 
holds, as a cardinal principle of political ethics, honor 
to be the life-blood of statesmen and all manner of men 
in office. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 123 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A chapter of anecdotes. 

Many amusing anecdotes are related of Mr. Pomeroy 
during his residence in La t^rosse. Upon one occasion, 
the 4th of July, six or seven years ago, he was invited 
to read the Declaration of Independence, and also to 
make a short speech. He accepted the invitation — the 
crowd assembled — and the amazement of all can be 
easily imagined upon seeing Mr. Pomeroy ascend the 
rostrum with a number of smooth shingles under his 
arm. In explanation, he stated that, as he had to de- 
liver a primitive speech, he thought it might prove ac- 
ceptable to his hearers to have things done up in a 
primitive style ; and as in olden times the people used 
boards instead of writing-paper, he merely followed 
their example ! Whereupon he proceeded to read the 
Declaration of Independence from his boards, much to 
the amusement of all present. Some of his hearers were 
" board" by his reading; others were not ! 

During the war it was currently reported that Mr, 
Pomeroy made large amounts of money; that is, while 
he held the position of army correspondent. He did 
not attempt to deny the statement, but said in his paper 
that he made from twelve to twenty million dollars, 



124 ~L1¥B OF 

when, in truth, he did not make a dollar, because he re- 
fused to support the Administration. 

Mr. Pomeroy, while possessing the gentleness of a 
woman, inherits from his father, of whom the following 
characteristic anecdote is related, the coolness and self- 
possession he exhibits in times of danger. Mr. Pomeroy, 
Sen., was in possession of a handsome property, which 
he had invested in lumber, *then in rafts ready to be 
transported by river to Baltimore. During a fearful 
storm which destroyed many houses on shore, some one 
sent word to Mr. Pomeroy that his rafts, and " arks" 
filled with produce, were all going off, or falling to 
pieces. He hastened to the scene of destruction, sur- 
veyed it calmly — for he could do nothing to save it — 
lighted his pipe, and as the last ark was falling to pieces, 
he coolly remarked to a man who stood by him : 

" If that ark had been stronger, it would not break 
up so easy, would it ?" 

At one time Mark intended lecturing in Indiana, but 
was told that a riot was anticipated, and that he might 
be attacked if he attempted to speak. He shrugged his 
shoulders, and at the appointed .time ascended the ros- 
trum ; as he did so, he allowed his cane to fall — a solid 
steel one — and the ring of the metal resounded through 
the building. Picking it up, and still holding it in his 
hand, he commenced his lecture. Once he was inter- 
rupted. " My friend," he said, addressing the man who 
created the disturbance, " I came here to speak, and I'm 



MARK M. ROMERO Y. 125 

going to say my say if I die for it ; and if you don't 
hush your noise, I shall . be compelled to break your 
head." He was allowed to continue his talk unmo- 
lested. 

The Republicans of La Crosse soon became afraid to 
offend Mr. Pomeroy, for his mode of punishment was so 
unique that it was far more disagreeable than corporeal 
infliction. A stranger one day went into a bank in La 
Crosse to draw a certain amount on a check. As refer- 
ence he used the name of Pomeroy. With an oath the 
banker exclaimed : 

" He is poor reference." 

Nothing was said ; but in the next issue of the La 
Crosse Democrat was published an article advising all 
the friends of the paper to transact their business with 
the other city bank, stating that it was the best and 
only reliable bank in La Crosse. 

The banker at once came to Mr. Pomeroy and made 
all necessary apologies, which were accepted, and the 
enemies became good friends. 

Once, while in a place of public amusement, one of 
the employes of Mr. Pomeroy resented an offensive re- 
mark which was made by a bully in the crowd. As the 
man was well known for his fighting propensities, no 
one dared to espouse the cause of Mr. Pomeroy's friend. 
The words became louder, until a powerful Western 
man, some distance from the disputants, rose from his 
seat, and asked the cause of the disturbance. Upon re- 



126 LIFE OF 

ceiving an explanation, he came forward, his huge form 
towering above all there, and said to the man : 

"I am not personally acquainted with 'Brick' Pom- 
eroy, but I know of him as a brave and honest man, 
while you are a coward and a liar ! Now, if you don't 
like that, come and I'll fight you to your heart's con- 
tent." The man must have been pleased with the 
statement, for he disappeared in the crowd. 

In the early days of the La Crosse Democrat, money 
was so very scarce with Mr. Pomeroy, that he was often 
compelled to give his men his promise to pay instead 
of their money, which, singular to say, so great was 
their confidence in him, was always accepted, and never 
once were those notes left in the hands of the men be- 
yond their maturity. 

When travelling, Mr. Pomefoy was constantly play- 
ing some practical joke, which usually resulted in benefit 
to himself; for instance, he would often mark his bag- 
gage M. M. Pomeroy, U. S. Navy, which secured him 
every attention. During the Tom Hyer excitement, 
Mr. Pomeroy tried in vain to find a vacant seat in the 
cars upon the New York and Erie railroad. In passing 
through one of the cars, he remarked in rather a loud 
tone to one of his friends — 

" Did you see Tom Hyer when he went into the next 
car?" 

In a moment nearly every seat was vacated, and 
Mark selected one of the most comfortable, and watched 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 127 

at leisure the disappointed faces of those who rushed to 
see Tom Hyer. 

The original name of " Brick" was Marcus. He was 
named after an uncle who was terribly opposed to De- 
mocracy. The old gentleman tried to convert his 
nephew, but in vain ; and therefore he considered him 
not only a hardened sinner, but a lost sheep to the Re- 
publican fold. When "Brick" became editor of a 
Democratic paper, the old uncle was still more exaspe- 
rated, and after some words between Mark and himself 
in regard to political matters, he remarked to one of the 
boy's relatives, that if Marcus was his son, he would disin- 
herit him, and that he was sorry he was named for him. 

" Easy enough to change it," replied the independent 
young man, and from that day he has written his name 
Mark. 

The old gentleman has at last come to declare, that 
Marcus was about right anyhow, in his opinion. 

Although very muscular and firmly built, Mr. Pom- 
eroy is as agile as a race-horse. He once, for mere 
amusement, became a competitor in a foot-race, which 
he won, running three hundred yards in the incredible 
short time of twenty-nine and a-half seconds. 

Sometimes the most simple of "Brick's" practical 
jokes cause him some "compunctious visitings," but lie 
always makes all the restitution in his power to the 
party practised upon. He, one day, while journeying 
in the cars with a party of friends, became very much 



128 LIFE OF 

interested in an old lady whose early training had so 
inculcated habits of industry that she, to save time, had 
brought her knitting with her, and was pegging away 
with all her mio-ht. 

The old lady having occasion to leave her seat for a few 
moments, laid her knitting down : when she returned, it 
had disappeared. Presently a well-dressed, sober-look- 
ing chap took the seat before her, quietly pulled a sock 
from his pocket, and commenced knitting. 

" That ar knitten is mine," said the old lady, eagerly. 

" Excuse me, madam," said the humorist ; " perhaps 
you are mistaken, but please examine it." 

The old lady took the work, peered at it through her 
spectacles. The yarn certainly looked like hers — she 
ought to know it, cause her Sal spun it — but the sock 
puzzled her, it was not near so far progressed, and then 
her knitting had only two needles in it, while this young 
man was knitting with three. With a sigh of intense 
disappointment, the old lady returned the knitting with 
the remark, " Wall, stranger, you knit powerful well for 
a man, but you are the first critter I ever saw what knit 
a sock with three needles." Having ravelled out her 
work and wound the yarn on the ball again, the ball 
was so much larger, and the stocking so much shorter, 
the old lady knew at once it was not her work, and gave 
it up as lost. Mark took the knitting home with him, 
and put it in his museum, for a curiosity, and wrote to 



MARK M. POMEROY. 129 

the old lady "whose address he had taken, to draw on 
him for any amount of money. 

At the commencement of the war, Mr. Pomeroy's 
means were so limited that he could not be very liberal, 
but he always divided his mite with the poor around 
him. When, however, he became prosperous, he was 
noted for his generosity. Soldiers and their families 
often had cause to bless him. 

As one instance, I cite this: The son of a poor widow 
lady was offered a good position if he could procure for 
himself a suitable outfit, which required forty dollars in 
addition to what he had. His mother went to some of 
her friends, but failed to get the desired amount. Mr. 
Pomeroy, hearing the difficulty, gave the full sum, with 
the message that if the bov needed more to come to 
him, that he was always willing to assist those who 
were industrious in their efforts to procure work. The 
boy is now in the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., 
and we presume a friend to the man who aided him 
when hardly able to help himself. 

In 1862, Mr. Pomeroy endeavored to elect, by a piece 
of political manoeuvring, the independent candidate of 
that district, the Hon. S. B. Stoddard. The office of 
the principal Republican paper of the city was in the 
same building as the La Crosse Democrat. One even- 
ing, after the forms had been prepared for the weekly 
issue and left for the night, Mr. Pomeroy went into the 

G* 






130 LIFE OF 

press-room, took the leading article from the form, 
which was in favor of the other candidate, and inserted 
in its place an editorial of his own in favor of Stoddard. 
The paper came out in due time the next morning, nor 
was the change discovered until a man came into the 
city from a country place twenty miles distant, to thrash 
the editor for going back upon the Republican can- 
didate. 

The mistake, a joke, was never explained ; but the 
proprietors concluded that it would scarcely do to 
remain in the same building with M. M. Pomeroy, and 
so they moved their office. By this act the Republican 
vote was greatly reduced, as many Republicans voted 
for Stoddard on reading in their organ that it was their 
duty to do so. 

The good citizens of La Crosse certainly remember 
when this call appeared in the city papers : " All those 
who love their country more than party, who revere 
the Constitution, and who love the Union, are requested 
to meet at Singer's Hall on Monday evening at eight 
o'clock. Per order loyal citizens." 

" Brick" read the order ; said it meant* Democrats. 
Monday evening the Democrats, headed by M. M. 
Pomeroy, assembled at an early hour in the hall, called 
the meeting to order, and elected a president. The 
Republicans came, found three Democrats to one Re- 
publican ; therefore the largest force held the ground, 
and the Republicans were obliged to assemble and hold 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 131 

their meeting in an old building to transact their busi- 
ness—in words, the formation of a " loyal league." 

Only yesterday a gentleman remarked that it was 
perfectly marvellous to see the effect of the La Crosse 
Democrat upon the minds of the lower classes, particu- 
larly the backwoodsmen, whose senses can best be 
reached by something plain, and, in some acceptations 
of the word, " broad." As an illustration, he gave the 
following fact, which was related to him by a friend who 
formerly held some position in Mr. Pomeroy's office in 
La Crosse. "In 1867, a party of gentlemen were on 
their way from Nebraska City to St. Joseph and were 
overtaken by a violent storm of rain and snow. It was 
intensely cold, and they feared to go further, as night 
had almost overtaken them, so they decided to take 
refuge in the next hut they came to. They were then 
on the north bank of the Big Tarkio, where houses are 
few and far between, but at last they reached a log 
cabin, uninviting it is true, but from the chimney issued 
a smoke which gave every indication of a good lire 
within. The inside of the cabin was still more repulsive 
than the exterior, and the surly man who opened the 
door, bade them continue their journey, as lie had no 
accommodations for strangers. They however entered, 
and saw from the number of loop-holes in the walls, that 
they were in the presence of a bushwhacker. 

" In looking around the room, one of the gentlemen 
discovered a La Crosse Democrat, and he knew that they 



132 LIFE OF 

were saved. So taking the paper in his hand he ap- 
proached the host with these words : * I see, my friend, 
that you subscribe for the La Crosse Democrat, and any 
man who takes that paper, and heeds the teachings of 
'Brick' Pomeroy, can't have a bad heart enough to 
turn a man out in the storm such a night as this.' 

" • Do you take it ?' he eagerly questioned. 

" ' Of course I do,' was the reply, ' and last year I 
helped to print it. Mr. Pomeroy is a friend of mine.' 

" It is needless to say that the party remained over 
night, and were as hospitably entertained as if they had 
been in a palace." 



MARK M. POMEROY. 133 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Organization of " The New York Democrat."— Interview with Mr. J. Howard. 

On the 24th of July, 1868, as the result of some cor- 
respondence, Mr. Jos. Howard, Jr., an accomplished 
journalist, called upon Mr. Pomeroy, and during the 
conversation, the latter said : 

" Howard, I want to start a New York Daily ; which 
would you advise, a morning or an evening paper ?" 

" That depends," answered Mr. Howard, " if you have 
$200,000 you care to risk, start a morning paper — it has 
more influence ; but if you care to venture not more 
than $50,000 your better opening is an evening." — 

"Suppose," said Mr. Pomeroy, "you figure on an 
evening paper and let me know exactly what it will 
require to put it through in good shape." 

" Ail right," rejoined Mr. Howard. " Dine with me 
to-morrow, at six o'clock, and we will talk it over." 

The next evening Mr. Howard produced the figures 
and estimates and said : 

" Well, what do you think, Pomeroy ?" 

Pomeroy. " I'll do it." 

Howard. " You need an editor." 

Pomeroy. " That's M. M. Pomeroy." 



134 LIFE OF 

Howard, " And a managing editor." 

Pomeroy. " That's Joe Howard." 

Howard. " I guess not." 

Pomeroy. "I guess yes. It's a matter of money, 
isn't it ?" 

Howard. "Yes." 

Pomeroy. " That part consider settled. How soon 
can you have the force engaged, the rooms ready, and 
the paper on the street ?" 

Howard. " This is the 25th of July. I'll agree to 
have the paper ready on the 15th August. 

Pomeroy. "All right. Go ahead. Be thorough. 
Draw on me for funds." 

The difficulties in the way of a newspaper enterprise 
but few appreciate. They are of many species — me- 
chanical, physical, mental, and moral. 

They were all overcome. The corps — a peculiarly 
apt and experienced set of men — were engaged and at 
work on the 14th of August. The editorial and business 

CD , 

offices were furnished and occupied. The composing- 
room, with new cases, type, and appliances, was in 
readiness, and at two o'clock on the day appointed the 
presses delivered the first edition of the New Yoek 
Democrat to the score of thousands ready for it. 

It started with more than 20,000 and ran rapidly up, 
ranging from 25,000 to 30,000, and from 30,000 to 
35,000, until the middle of September, by which time 
the pressure from all sections of the country was so 



MARK M. POMEROY. 135 

great, that Mr. Pomeroy determined to add to his en- 
terprise, a daily morning paper, which should be not 
only democratic in name, but in essence, and so at all 
times and under all circumstances. He accordingly 
gave directions to that effect, and the proper steps are 
taken at this writing, September 18, 1868, which will 
ensure the early forthcoming of that greatly needed 
sheet. 

Perhaps it is proper here to call attention to a marked 
peculiarity of Mr. Pomeroy's nature. He directs, and 
others perform as he directs. Although the responsible 
editor of his several papers, he throws the immediate 
responsibility upon his assistants. He marks out the 
course, and indicates the goal, but assumes none of the 
petty cares that attend the actual conduct of these en- 
terprises. 

This not only leaves him time for thought and op- 
portunity for occnpance of new fields, but insures that 
perfection of result, which can only attend the use 
of power in the hands of responsibility. 

The wonderful success attending Mr. Pomeroy and 
his journals, is rightfully attributed to his sincerity, his 
honesty, his pluck, his endurance, and his rare know- 
ledge" of human nature. 

Two favorite sayings of his tell the story : 

" I am democratic at all times, and under all circum- 
stances." — "Principles; not men." 

The eternal fitness of things would seem to be his 



136 LIFE OF 

omnipresent guide, and with that end in view, what 
may he not attempt, with brain and opportunity on his 
ri^ht and on his left. 

"We see by the fact related in this chapter, the organ- 
ization of The Democrat, a peculiar trait of character 
with Mr. Pomeroy, his quickness, be it at repartee, 
to seize an opportunity, or in making decisions. It is 
yes or no. He seems to know what a person wants 
the moment he enters the room, or his presence, often 
deciding before a story is half told, but not before he 
has comprehended it fully. We have seen him refuse 
charity to impostors — the next moment to open his 
purse unasked to relieve real necessity. 

In the manner of writing he is peculiar. Seated at 
the desk, he will write a column of bitter invective — 
then a column of pathetic appeal — then one of the 
humorous, descriptive, or political articles which have 
given him such a wide-spread name and reputation — 
then dash off a column of jokes and personals; doing 
in two hours what other men could never do, or writing; 
in an hour more of, or upon a subject than most profes- 
sional men could do in a day. 

He never re-writes ; pages after pages of his manu- 
script go into the hands of his printers without addition, 
erasure, or change of a comma or word. 

If a writer in his paper furnishes an article that in his 
idea is not quite up to the mark, he finds no fault, but 
says: 



MARK M. POMEROY. 137 

u Yes, that is good, but see if this will not fit the case 
a little closer." 

Then he will snatch a pen or pencil, and, in half the 
time used to prepare the original article, write one, red- 
hot, as the saying is, and say : 

" Read this — Follow the idea — write to the point — hit 
'em right on top of the head — never do you look for 
consequences — I'll take care of the rest !" 

He is the most rapid writer living, and will, while 
writing; one article, be dictating: another to a man on 
his right, and still another to a person on his left. The 
amount of mental labor he perform* astonishes all who 
know him. 

A prominent New York journalist asked him one day, 
in our hearing : 

" Mr. Pomeroy, how under heaven do you accomplish 
so much ? How do you live under the enormous labor 
you perform ?" 

Says he, in reply : 

" Oh, easy enough — it's no work for me ! I believe 
what I write — never write unless I have something to 
say — know what I wish to say, and say it, without 
thinking about the consequences. And then I never 
dissipate in any icay. God gave me a work to do, and 
He is helping me. He will help me so long as I take 
care of myself and strive to do my duty. I never drink 
liquor as a beverage — never injure my brain by the use 
of tobacco or stimulants — try to keep my health — have 



138 LIFE OF 

a clear conscience, and a disposition to work. And I 
know, if I work earnestly I shall succeed some day, for 
those for whom I labor will help me when I prove my- 
self worthy of help." 

" Well, Mr. Pomeroy, your enemies say hard things 
about you." 

" Yes, but they don't know me ; and when they learn 
what kind of a man I am, they feel foolish. But I don't 
care what my enemies say. Thank God ! my friends 
are satisfied with me — I am satisfied with myself and 
the cause I am engaged in — and He who rules us all 
seems satisfied witll me, or I should not succeed in the 
face of the opposition before me." 

" Well," said a personal friend, " I don't endorse your 
ideas, but I like you as a man, and wish you well." 

" If you wish me well you must endorse my ideas, for 
to wish me well is to wish me success." 

" That is so, isn't it ?— well, so be it !" 

M. M. Pomeroy came to New York backed by the 
'people of the United States as never was man endorsed 
before. He asks no man for a dollar, has abundant 
means to lose half-a-dozen ordinary fortunes, if need be, 
to insure his success. He intends to fiVht the bond- 
holders, all corrupt politicians and robbers of the people, 
to defend the rights of States and the interests of the 
working class. He cares not for losses to property or 
life— he means conscientiously to fight for a principle, 
and intends to see that principle win, if at the end of a 



MARK M. POMEROY. 139 

bitter war in the North. He is the most implacable 
enemy the Republican party ever had ; and he will, if 
in the power of mortal, give that party the death- 
blow. 



140 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER XIX. 

An author cannot be judged by his writings.— Mr. Pomeroy's ideas of 

Masonry. 

Mark M. Pomeroy is a practical demonstration of 
the fact that you cannot always judge an author by his 
writings. As a man, he is a singular compound of wis- 
dom and simplicity. Many judging him from some of 
his articles in the La Crosse Democrat, believe him to 
be a rough, unpolished man, given to the use of profane 
lansruao-e, mtoxicatinp; beverasres, tobacco, and all other 
vices incidental to the fast men of the age. In his pri- 
vate character Mr. Pomeroy is unimpeachable ; he is 
never the companion of dissolute or bad characters ; 
does not use tobacco in any form ; entirely ignores the 
use of stimulants, and will discharge a man from his 
employ quicker for indulging in liquor than for any 
other failing. 

He is very tender-hearted, and is generous to a fault. 
The following characteristic anecdote is related of him, 
which shows his simplicity of manners, and his sym- 
pathy for toilers for bread, especially women : 

Mr. Pomeroy, during a conversation with an almost 
unknown lady writer, asked for one of her books, that 



MARK M. POMEROY. 141 

he might notice it in his paper. The lady, appreciating 
the compliment, gladly presented him with the book. 

" Can you make it convenient to call at my office to- 
morrow ?" he asked, " and I will pay you for it." 

" I believe, sir," replied she, " that it is customary to 
present editors with the book for the notice, is it not ? 
And besides, you have given me copies of your ' Sense' 
and ' Nonsense.' " 

He stood a moment as if embarrassed, and then said : 
" I will feel badly if you don't let me pay you ; and as 
for giving you my book, that's a different matter. I am • 
able to do it, for I'm a great big man, and you are only 
a little delicate woman, who should not be obliged to 
battle with the world." 

Mr. Pomeroy appreciates fun, and never neglects an 
opportunity of creating mirth. Only a short time ago, 
as " Brick," with his coat off, was working i n his office 
there entered a handsomely dressed, pompous-looking 
man, who scarcely noticed the hard-working man. The 
great " Brick" was the one he wanted to see, but he con- 
descended to ask the following questions : 

" This is Mr, Pomeroy's office, is it not, young man ?" 

" It is, sir," answered Brick, politely. 

" Office of the La Crosse Democrat ?" 

" Yes, sir, a branch office." 

" Will Mr. Pomeroy be in to-day ?" 

" He will, sir." 

" He has rooms at the Astor-House, has he not ?" 



142 LIFE OF 

" He has, sir." 

" Will you give me the number of his room ?" 

" Certainly, sir," said the obliging " Brick ;" and writ- 
ing the number of his room he handed the card politely 
to the man, who walked across the City-Hall Park in 
search of the "Brick" he had just been talking to. 

Brick looked into the office where we were sitting 
laughing at the scene, and asked, with a sober face, but 
mirthful eyes, what pleased us so ; and then added : 

" I answered his questions politely, did I not — every 
one he asked me ? 

Mr. Pomeroy has a hearty, genial way about him that 
fascinates even his political foes, who cannot help re- 
specting his character as a man, although they do not 
admire his political course. One fact is indisputable, 
that those who have known him longest like him best. 

" Tell me some of Mr. Pomeroy's faults," I asked in 
my search for facts in regard to his life, of a young man 
who had been with him many years. 

"Indeed," was the reply, " you must go to some one 
who has never known Mr. Pomeroy, to find out his 
failings. I have been with him too many years to see 
them." Although far from being cruel, it is not best 
to make an enemy of him, for his memory is powerful, 
and his manner of resenting an injury original. 

He has many peculiar traits of character, one of which 
is, secrecy in regard to his anticipated movements — po- 



MARK M. POMEEOT. 143 

litical and financial. Another is, his rapidity of thought, 
which enables him to decide in a moment ; he then 
moves with sudden and overpowering energy, bending 
every power to the accomplishment of the matter in 
hand. Quick to decide — prompt to act — he deems ar- 
gument on an abandoned project a loss of time and waste 
of energy, unfitting a man for what is in immediate 
view. Perseverance in any course he has adopted, is 
another striking trait. If he cannot master a man to-day ', 
he at once plans, and waits to capture him to-morrow, 
or when the proper time comes. He abandons a fight 
to-day, to renew it in a month or year, with tenfold 
vigor — going down like a duck, to come up again when 
least expected. 

He delights in an open fight in argument with an 
enemy, and never holds off from pursuit of a flying foe, 
until he grounds arms and surrenders, when all the past 
is forgiven, and the only desire is to work in unison for 
the future good of mankind. 

Mr. Pomeroy is a worker himself, and he hates a man 
who will not bear his share of toil fairly. He himself 
devotes to his duties from sixteen to twenty hours per 
dav. 

He is also fond of out-door sports, is a thorough 
horseman, a capital pistol and rifle shot, and expert witli 
the bowie-knife, is of powerful build, can easily hold fifty 
or sixty pounds on the back of his hand at arm's length. 



144 LIFE OF 

a 

He is a great lover of art and literature, and regrets 
that his early opportunities were such as would not ad- 
mit of the gratification of his tastes, nor the cultivation 
of his remarkable talents. 

Mr. Pomeroy is a Mason, Brother, Companion, and 
Sir Knight : a true Mason in every sense of the word ; 
created by God and confirmed by man. 

As a Mason, he is peculiarly consistent, believing that 
there is more of religion in the teachings of Masonry, 
than in many so-called Christian societies. He never 
speaks ill of a brother or relative of one, unless he does 
it in defence of truth ; and to worthy Masons, he has al- 
ways an open hand. But he insists that it is no part 
of a Mason's duty to pay money or go out of the way to 
aid Masons who are addicted to intoxication — who squan- 
der money foolishly — who will not try to help them- 
selves, and who would use the sacred ties of Masonic 
Brotherhood to support them in idleness and dissipation. 

The "Jewels" of a brother Mason he would defend at 
peril of his life, as is the duty of every valiant Sir Knight. 
While he never asks aid himself on this score, he is only 
too glad to recognize the calls of others, if they be 
worthy. One idea of his is this. In response to the 
question to him one day propounded : 

" What does that lot of letters H. T. W. S. S. T. K. S. 
on your Masonic charm stand for ?" 

He at once replied; 



MARK H. P0MER0Y. 145 

« He That Whispers Scandal Seeks To Kill Society." 
Whether this is the correct interpretation or not we 
cannot tell, but it seems to us to be a very good one, 
and worthy of remembrance, and of general adoption. 

7 



146 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER XX. 

Difference of opinion in regard to the personal appearance of "Brick."— 
Pomeroy a twin. — Praise from Mr. Greeley. 

A Massachusetts paper says : 

" We saw ' Brick' Pomeroy in New York — a little old 
drunkard, with narrow face, low forehead, and piggy 
looking eye." 

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the spiciest daily in the 
world, says : 

" Brick" Pomeroy. — Mr. M. M. Pomeroy, editor and 
proprietor of the La Crosse Democrat, is now in New 
York. One who knows of him only by his writings, 
knows but little of him as a man. He has one of the 
best built heads we ever saw ; a tremendous brow, with 
a forehead as fine and white as that of a girl ; his great 
blue eyes are as innocent, as full of fun, as those of a 
baby, but as sharp as those of a lynx ; he is graceful in 
demeanor, quiet voiced, full of vim, and nervous in tem- 
perament. He writes like a steam-engine ; his pen fly- 
ing over the paper like a flash of greased lightning. 
The Weekly Democrat has a circulation of over 270,000 
copies; and goes into every city, town, and hamlet of 
the nation. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 147 

[From the N. Y. Citizen.'] 

Question of Identity. — It is not generally known 
that Mr. Pomeroy, the editor of the La Crosse Demo- 
crat, and more lately of the Democrat in this city, is a 
young man of refined and elegant appearance, with a 
small, white hand, a broad forehead, and slim shape. 
He neither drinks nor smokes, and has none of the char- 
acteristics of a seasoned Hard-shell of the olden school, 
while a steady glance from a woman will make him 
blush to his ears. His disposition naturally throws him 
with those of a religious tendency. Clergymen are 
common visitors at his office, and find him always ready 
to assist the objects they have in view. One of these 
who had a bald head, and on whom nature had most 
unjustly set the seal of the wine-bibber, was seated in 
his outer office writing, when a specimen Fourth Ward 
Democrat, more than three sheets in the wind, called! to 
pay his respects to the King of the Copperheads. This 
fellow was shown into the same room with the clergy- 
man ; and, stalking up behind the latter, who was lean- 
ing over the desk deeply occupied, brought a huge, 
dirty hand down upon his bald head, so that the marks 
of his fingers were visible for hours, shouting: "How 
are you, Brick, old fellow ? I knowed you at once, I 
did. How are you, old cuss ? I knowed you by your 
bald head and your red nose. You are one of our sort, 
you are. Give 'em Old Nick, them Republican cusses ; 



148 IAFE OF 

you are the chap that can do that same, you are. I see 
it in your eye." 

Explanations were useless, and the clergyman rushed 
into Mr. Pomeroy's private apartments for protection, 
with the marks of the strong admiration of his friend 
still upon him. 

[From the Crawford County {Ohio) Forum]. 

Brick Pomeroy. — While riding leisurely along in 
one of those elegant street-coaches for which New York 
is famous, from the seething Convention at Tammany 
Hall, down Bowery, past the Tombs, and to City Hall 
Park, our attention was arrested by a modest and un- 
pretentious sign, hung out from the corner of the old 
Sun building, which read: "The La Crosse Demo- 
crat." Curiosity, as well as a commendable desire to 
see and form the acquaintance of its distinguished ed- 
itor, induced us to call a "halt;" and in a few moments 
we were ushered into the sanctum. After a formal in- 
troduction, we were greeted with the words, " Welcome, 
a thousand times welcome !" from the lips of the man 
whom the bondholders and gold-brokers of Wall-street 
fear more than any other who treads this continent. 

And now, while our conversation is momentarily in- 
terrupted by one of his business agents, who is directed 
to the news-room, where enormous piles of weekly Dem- 
ocrats are lying upon the counter, allow us to daguer- 
reotype his physique and general appearance to our 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 149 

readers. Imagine a man very neatly and genteelly 
dressed, five feet ten or eleven inches in height, about 
forty years of age, symmetrically built, neither heavy 
nor slender, straight as an Indian chief, a fine, shaj)ely 
head, somewhat bald, sitting firmly on a finely propor- 
tioned neck and shoulders, blonde complexion, as fair 
as a woman's, darkish auburn hair, large, liquid, lus- 
trous, speaking eyes, and a countenance expressive of 
mental overwork, yet lighted up with calm, but terrible 
earnestness — and Brick Pomeroy stands before you. 

Whoever looks upon that face is at once prepared for 
the curious anomaly of seeing side by side, in alternate 
columns of the La Crosse, some prose idyl, like " Satur- 
day Night," in which the tenderest cords of the harp of 
humanity are played upon with exquisite fingers, and a 
venomous philippic, scarcely inferior in quality and con- 
centrated energy to its great Demosthenian original, 
against " Ben. Butler, the cock-eyed beast of New 
Orleans." 

" Brick's" conversation is like his editorials — nervous, 
sententious ; in short, a melange of sense, tenderness, 
Attic wit, flashes of thought like flashes of lightning, 
and above all and beyond all, an earnest, intense enthu- 
siasm, which invincibly fascinates and enchains the 
listener. 

Republicanism laughed scornfully at his fiery edito- 
rials four years ago, as they appeared in the little, slen- 
der columns of his paper, which enjoyed a still slenderer 



150 LIFE OF 



circulation. To-day, his mammoth steam-presses in La 
Crosse and New York, send to the world nearly three 
hundred thousand copies, laden with every species of 
argument and illustration to catch the eye or appeal to 
the sense of working men ; and if " Brick" Pomeroy 
stamps his foot, the bondholders, from Wall-street to 
Hamburg, clutch tremblingly their golden couponed 
bonds, to make them sure. 

On exchanging farewells, " Brick" kindly presented 
us with a beautifully bound copy of his late work, enti- 
tled " Sense." We have read it carefully through with 
one whose opinion is more valuable than our own, and 
found it gold ; pure, beaten gold. It is exactly adapted 
to make men out of boys — men of worth, stamina, char- 
acter, probity, and vigorous manhood. 

A health to you, " Brick," wherever you are ! Be 
firm, be true ! Our heart is with you in the conflict of 
Labor against Capital, Taxpayers against Bondholders, 
Union against Disunion, and Right against Wrong. 

We clip from the Reading Eagle the following ex- 
tracts from the report of Mr. Pomeroy's reception and 
speech at Reading a few weeks since : 

" Mr. Pomeroy stepped upon the top of the railing, 
not over nine inches wide, and from that rather insecure 
position addressed the people for more than two hours. 
He is a fluent, eloquent, and graceful speaker; and 
though on his first appearance, and at intervals through- 



MARK M. POMEROY. 151 

out his address, he was greeted with tremendous ap- 
plause, the motionless attitude and close attention of 
the people, closely packed together under the cold star- 
light, listening in the utmost silence, was still more 
complimentary to the speaker. 

" We regret that our space prevents us from publish- 
ing his address entire. It was eloquent and unanswer- 
able, and was addressed principally to Republicans. 
There was no coarse language, no profanity, no bitter 
personal denunciation, but the plain truth, spoken by 
a plain man, and intended for plain, common-sense 
people. Those persons who expected to hear Mr. Pome- 
roy disgrace himself and his party were disappointed. 

" A large number of ladies were present, and remained 
to a late hour. Mr. Pomeroy spoke rapidly, and with- 
out apparent fatigue, though somewhat wearied by 
travel. He has a clear and sonorous voice, which could 
be heard distinctly by the vast crowd in attendance, 
which is estimated at five thousand persons at least, 
most of whom were working-men. 

" Only one slight disturbance took place, caused by 
an intoxicated * loil' man on the outskirts of the crowd, 
but he was speedily silenced, and made a retreat to the 
Mansion House, where he concealed himself. Mr. Pome- 
roy expressed his thanks to the people of Reading for 
his kind reception and their close attention, and closed 
his speech by proposing three cheers for Seymour and 



152 LIFE OF 

Blair, which were given with a will, immediately fol- 
lowed by three tremendous cheers and a tiger for 
* Brick ' Pomeroy. 

" In person Mr. Pomeroy is of medium height, and 
well built, somewhat bald, with light hair and light 
complexion. He has a fine forehead, and an open, pre- 
possessing countenance, with an expression of quickness, 
tireless energy, and dauntless bravery. As a speaker 
we have never heard him excelled. His humorous re- 
marks drew forth bursts of irrepressible laughter, and 
his eloquent, and frequently pathetic remarks, were 
listened to with the closest attention and highest ap- 
parent appreciation by all. His voice, clear and pene- 
trating as the notes of a bugle, penetrated to an in- 
credible distance, and every sentence was distinctly 
audible. 

" In manner Mr. Pomeroy is a plain, unassuming, and 
courteous gentleman. He dresses plainly, but elegantly, 
in black, and wears on his breast a beautiful ami costly 
emblem of the Masonic fraternity, of which he is a 
prominent and respected member. He is strictly tem- 
perate, using neither liquor nor tobacco in any form, 
though he is not a fanatical prohibitionist, preferring 
to let every man make his own choice in his mode of 
living. 

" Mr. Pomeroy greatly admired our beautiful city, 
and was delighted with the people, the scenery, and the 
blooming fertility of Old Berks, which he promises to 



MARK M. POMEROY. 153 

visit again. He has left behind him hosts of friends, of 
all parties, some of whom were agreeably disappointed 
to find that the terrible ' Brick' Pomeroy is not a ruffian 
nor a fiend, but a modest, unassuming, courteous, and 
affable gentleman in every sense of the word. The im- 
mense turnout of the people is an evidence that the best 
wishes of the masses are with the Democracy and their 
champion, and that Berks county will respond heartily 
to the request of Mr. Pomeroy, for an unprecedented 
Democratic majority at the coming elections." 

None of the newspaper descriptions of Mr. Pomeroy 
are perfectly correct, and, in truth, it is as difficult to 
describe the personal appearance of this most singular 
man as it is to enumerate the phases of his character. 

He is five feet eight inches in height, firmly built, 
with powerful chest and lungs, measuring around his 
chest forty-three inches. Although accustomed to labor 
in his early life, his feet and hands are small. His face 
is peculiar. He has a very high forehead, and the thin 
light hair of susceptible, nervous temperament, and also 
light, or sandy whiskers. His mouth is not small, and 
his lips are full, but refined and pure. They are impul- 
sive, and indicate both affection and hospitality. Even 
before he speaks, those who know him well can tell by 
the curve of his lips if he will utter words of kindness 
or fierce denunciation. His lips denote ambition, firm- 
ness, self-esteem, and self-control — also approbativenesB. 
He is pleased with himself and all he does. 

>7* 



154 LIFE OF 

His nose is far from being handsome, but it is de- 
cidedly characteristic. It is apprehensive and inquisi- 
tive. His is not a combative nose, but on it you may 
read noli me tangere (touch me not). On his own 
ground he will fight to the death, and in argument is 
pretty sure to have the last word. 

His ears are large, and indicate the Democratic ele- 
ment of character. 

It will perhaps be observed that we have spoken of 
the eyes of Mr. Pomeroy in one place as gray, in an- 
other we have called them blue. In reading the num- 
bers of the first portion of this book, Mr. Pomeroy in- 
serted gray for blue. As we glanced into his eyes to 
satisfy ourselves as to their real color, we found they 
were black, for the sight of the eye covered nearly all 
the pupil, so large and intense it was. One singular 
fact has never been mentioned. In the pupil of his left 
eye is a red brick, which grows darker and more fiery 
when Mr. Pomeroy is politically excited. Some poet 
calls the eye "the window of the soul ;" and we believe 
it is, for Mr. Pomeroy's eyes are irrepressible — so is he. 
Sometimes they glow with intense emotion, gleam with 
hate, sparkle with mirth, flash with anger, melt with 
pity, light up with joy, and darken in sorrow. 

His is not an educated eye ; it is the impulsive eye of 
a child ; and we can scarcely realize how any one who 
has ever looked in Mr. Pomeroy's eye can consider him 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 155 

anything but pure, honest, and noble, in his efforts for 
the grand cause he has espoused. 

{From the La Crosse Deinocrat.) 

" Time is the vindicator. — There have been few 
people in the world more maligned, slandered, misrepre- 
sented, and abused, than the editor of this paper — 

M. M. PoMEROY. 

" So long as we can remember, Radicals have suffered 
and writhed under his sharp lashings, and, as a defence, 
have invented the most absurd and improbable stories 
relative to Mr. Pomeroy's character — or want of char- 
acter — one could possibly conceive. 

" There is hardly a big or little print in the whole 
country that has not had its snarl; but all were to 
little purpose in crushing out the renowned traitor they 
sought to annihilate. While all of them were the 
vilest and grossest misrepresentations, they were also 
devoid of the strength that attaches to decency and 
earnestness. 

" Finally, however, about a year ago, the editor of a 
small, obscure paper, printed at Corry, Pa., got his 
* mad' up, and sent out a scorching shell, that was 
pushed along by the whining Radical press, until it 
had gone the length and breadth of the country. At 
the time we paid no attention to the effervescing vile- 
ness of this scab of Jacobinism, trusting to time to set 
all things even. And time has done it. 



150 LIFE OF 

" We have -before us a slip cut from the Oregon (111.) 
National Guard, from which we take the following 
extracts : 

" ' Not many months since, the people of this county 
were regaled with an article on ' Brick' Pomeroy, by a 
portion of our county press, copied from the Cony 
(Pa.) Republican. Every paper caught it up, and 
many of them testified that it was true to their own 
knowledge. While in Rockford the other day, we met 
the gentleman who edited the Republican, and while in 
conversation with him referred to the article in ques- 
tion. He acknowledged that he wrote it, and also that 
it was manufactured entirely from fancy, not a. word of 
truth being in it. He said, as a publisher of a Radical 
paper he thought if he couldn't tell anything against a 
copperhead by telling the truth on him, he would lie. 
He said the other Radical papers did it, and he wanted 
to keep up.' 

" Here is a first-rate Radical confession, showing: that 
the stock in trade of the Jacobin mob is lying and 
slandering. This Pennsylvania editor confesses to hav- 
ing never seen us, yet he published what he called a 
personal description, and gives reputed happenings in 
our career, which he now confesses to have been en- 
tirely imaginary, and without the slightest foundation 
in truth ; and such were all the vile stories that have 
been published in that connection. We took not the 
trouble to denounce them, because our friends, and 



MARK M. POMEROY. 157 

those who knew us, knew them to be lies, and for our 
enemies we had no care. 

"Twins — Beecher and Pomeroy. — The coining 
monthly of that eccentric genius, Packard, the advance 
sheets of which the editor has kindly furnished us, con- 
tains a peculiar article on * Twins.' In it the author 
makes the absurd point, that men in general are 
ashamed of twins, that they go back on them, and 
rather avoid the honor of their paternity. But read 
him: 

" ' Another singular twinitarian fact is, that, whereas 
the mother is always inexpressibly proud of twins, the 
father not unfrequently has to contend with a shame- 
facedness on the subject, of which he is, in turn, still 
more ashamed. You see a couple blessed with twins 
get aboard of a street-car with their double chubby 
treasures. The mother makes the most of them, shows 
them off in a variety of cunning maternal ways, and 
challenges the admiration of the whole company ; but 
the father sneaks off to the platform outside, under 
pretence of requiring the fresh air. We saw that very 
thing done no longer ago than the day before yester- 
day, in a street-car in Brooklyn. 

" ' In fact, the only man that we have any idea would 
always be proud of twins, everywhere, on every occa- 
sion, and under whatever circumstance, is Brick Pom- 
eroy. Although we never saw Brick Pomeroy, we 



158 LIFE OF 

feel au assured conviction that he would never think of 
going back on a pair of twin Bricks in a street-car, or 
anywhere else. 

" ' Does the reader ask us why, in this particular 
matter, we have such an exalted opinion of the young 
Democratic David? We answer, our faith in Brick 
Pomeroy's loyalty to twins is founded on the fact 
that 

" ' Brick is himself a twin ! and that Henry "Ward 
Beecher is the other one ! 

" ' It cannot have been forgotten that, on a memor- 
able occasion, when Mr. Beecher was expostulated with 
for saying original and live things in the pulpit, he 
plaintively responded : 

" ' But if you only knew the things I dortt say !' 

" ' Too true ! alas, too true ! And here is w T here the 
twinship comes in : 

" ' Mr. Beecher does not say 'em, but his fellow twin 
does say 'em. Brick thus supplements or twins Beecher, 
whereby we get an entire man, which is a purely provi- 
dential matter. 

" ' And Brick has made a vast deal more by saying 
the things which Beecher does not say, than Mr. 
Beecher has ever made by not saying the things which 
Brick does say. 

" ' But if Mr. Beecher only would say 'em in his own 
heaven-gifted w T ay, what a commotion he could raise, 
what a newspaper he could make! He could be the 



MARK M. POMEROY. 159 

monarch of the world — the adored leader of the choice 
and master spirits of this age. 

"'The twin that speaks its uttermost convictions 
without fear, favor, or affection, is the favorite of these 
times, and we feel Obliged to providence for proving 
this truth so strikingly by means of Brick Pomeroy. 
Not that we sympathize or agree in principles or con- 
victions with that conspicuous twin, far from it ; but 
we do go in for the out-and-out expression to one's 
personality, under any and all circumstances. 

" ' The application of this short secular sermon is, 
therefore, this, oh reader: If you are going to be a 
twin at all, be the twin that says it, rather than the 
twin that doesn't say it — the twin that does it, rather 
than the twin that doesn't do it.' " 

" Truth from the Tribute. — The Tribune of this 
morning is disposed to be complimentary. We begin 
to tremble lest we have done something wrong. Praise 
from happy Horace — goodness gracious ; praise from 
godless Greeley — really, this will not do. Pitch into 
us, old buffers, but for pity's sake don't blather us with 
flattery. We always knew that we were good ; but 
great — oh, go 'long. This is what Horace says : 

" c The Hon. Mark M. Pomeroy, the great Democratic 
editor and statesman of the West, has honored us with 
a copy of his • new national daily paper,' The Democrat. 
We are glad to have an opportunity of congratulating 



160 LIFE OF 

Mr. Tilden and his friends that they are about to have 
an organ that will ' force the fighting.' We have been 
convinced that the disgust which the pure Democracy 
of New York felt for the Herald and the World would 
take expression in this form. It was impossible for a 
great party, a party of lusty, zealous, and bold men, to 
forever follow the uncertain leadership of the Herald, 
or to find comfort in the endless columns of twaddle 
which the hangers-on of the Manhattan Club daily dis- 
till into the New York World. They have yearned for 
a leader like Pomeroy ; and now Pomeroy comes 
among them, a Saul among Democratic prophets, and 
raises the banner of true Democracy in New York. 

" ' Mr. Pomeroy informs us that his paper will be 
* red-hot ;' that it will be ' a true, reliable, out-and-out 
Democratic daily paper ;' that it will be ' the sharpest, 
plainest, most readable, best edited and most interesting 
daily paper ever issued in America ;' and that ' it will 
persistently and unflinchingly advocate the equality of 
States or another war.' He also assures us, that in 
arranging this platform, it is ' with a full knowledge of 
the wants of the people, their sentiments and demands.' 
The difference between Mr. Pomeroy and the other 
Democratic editors is, that he is sincere. He claims to 
be a Democrat, and nothing else. It is all very well 
for these curled darlings of the Manhattan Club, sod- 
den with the fumes of Mr. Barlow's champagne, to 
write their rhetorical fribbles about the Constitution 



MARK M. POMEROY. 161 

and the laws, but the true-hearted Democrat, the Dem- 
ocrat who goes to the polls and assists in swelling the 
great Democratic majority of New York, wants just 
such teaching as Mr. Pomeroy proposes to give him. 

" The advent of Mr. Pomeroy is a matter that more 
immediately concerns the World, the Herald, and the 
Express than it does the Tribune. At the same time, 
it is an event in New York journalism. It is also 
something to know that we have Mr. Brick Pomeroy in 
journalism, and that he leads a mighty and well- 
disciplined party. As for the World, it serves no pur- 
pose, either useful or ornamental, except to print the 
inexhaustible letters of George T. Curtis, and the inter- 
minable speeches of Mr. Tilden." 



162 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER XXL 

Mr. Wells 1 description of a true Orator.— Pomeroy as a Poet, Artist, Philoso- 
pher, and Actor. 

Mr. S. R. Wells, in his "New Physiognomy, or 
Signs of Character," thus speaks of the true orator : 

"The orator requires the mental and vital tempera- 
ments. He must be feelingful, emotional, frank, and 
open, and be largely endowed with Language, as an 
outlet for his thoughts and feelings. He must have a 
vivid imagination to give its charm to his ideas, and 
Ideality to adorn his style. He should have strong affec- 
tions, to warm up and animate his nature. The more 
highly educated, the better he can use his faculties. 
Still, the Indian of the forest may possess all the natural 
oratorical qualities and become, celebrated, although 
untaught. And we have had very fine specimens of 
native orators even among backwoodsmen, who were 
unlettered. 

" One may excel as a debater without rising into the 
sphere of the orator. He may preach a most eloquent 
sermon without any oratorical display. He may be 
purely of the intellectual sort, and, as a speaker^he may 
claim some degree of reputation ; but if he combine 
something of the poet and actor, with real devotion, 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 163 

his power will be proportionately increased. Truth 
should be a crowning principle, and he who speaks, 
should speak from the heart to the heart, if he would 
move the heart. 

"He is the best orator who knows most of the human 
mind. Would he awaken the affections, he knows what 
chord to touch.. Would he excite the passions, he 
knows where to strike. Would he stimulate the sym- 
pathies, or develop the reverential emotions, he must 
appeal to them through Benevolence and Veneration. 
Would he touch our sense of honor, our manliness, he 
must appeal to those faculties on which these sentiments 
depend, and he must feel and express these sentiments 
if he would work on the feelings of those who hear. 
This is the secret of oratory. 

" A man with a bad cause, and knowing himself to be 
in the wrong, can make but a weak appeal compared 
with him who is actuated by the consciousness of being 
in the right, and of serving God as well as man. Take 
the case of Patrick Henry on that memorable occasion 
when he exclaimed : * I knoic not what course others 
may take, but as for my single self give me liberty, 

OR GIVE ME DEATH. V " 

We thank Mr. Weils for so clearly defining the secret 
of Mr. Pomeroy's success as an orator. Like the Indian 
of the forest, his sole preceptor in elocution was the 
grand master of the Indian, Nature. He speaks from 
the heart to the heart, and he not only feels . the truth 



164 LIFE OF 

of every word he utters, but he convinces his hearers 
that he believes in his expressed sentiments. 

Like our good, kind-hearted Horace Greeley, Mr. 
Pomeroy is honest, and in this age when honest men are 
so hard to find, be they Republican or Democrat, they 
should be appreciated. 

Mr. Pomeroy is a poet — his mental temperament is 
exquisitely susceptible— he has not the poetry of the 
passions, nor of the intellect ; his is the inspired poetry 
of the spiritual sentiments. Read his " Magic Article" 
in his book of " Sense." It is a prose poem. In the 
delicate finger-tracery of the frost on his windows 
he sees all that is beautiful in nature. He says: 
" It seemed as though a convention of angel-artists had 
been summoned by the dying Winter-king, and by the 
lio-ht of the aurora borealis, had made him a picture of 
such magic beauty, that no one could look upon it 
without feeling to do him homage. There were the 
bold, heavy strokes of some rough old forest-spirit who 
delighted in making mountains, rocks, cascades, and 
deep ravines. There stood the work of less dashing 
artists, delighting in the production of plains, rivers, 
oceans, and deserts. Then there were plains filled with 
forests deep and dark — with woods resembling the 
fixmed Bois de Boulogne— w^ith prairies and deserts 
stretching off into the distance, till lost in touches so 
delicate that the breath of a spirit even, must drive the 
work away. There were sketches by gentler artists — 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 165 

of birds, of plants, of flowers, and a thousand beautiful 
fancies. There were the choicest, most delicate era- 
broideries, rivalling the finest Honiton, so neatly woven, 
of so fine a texture, and of such handsome patterns, that 
it seemed as if the wedding lace and bridal veils of 
angels had been stolen from their heavenly wardrobe, 
and placed on the windows before me to teach man his 
utter insignificance." 

We see in this beautiful poem the ideality and sub- 
limity which he sometimes shows in his speeches. 

He is sympathetic, and can at once read the style of 
his audience, and adapt his oration to their intellects. 
He is a splendid imitator, and his sense of the ludicrous 
is intense. I have seen his audience one moment shed- 
ding tears over some pitiful tale of woe, and the next 
laughing at his truthful imitation of some drunken sot. 
He is, as a speaker, fiery, honest, and earnest ; he 
speaks, urged on by his love of liberty and sense of 
manly independence, and his words fall like hot shot 
and strike home to the hearts of his hearers. He is not 
a cautious speaker, and does not feel his way, but dashes 
at once into the heart of the argument regardless of con- 
sequences. 

His language is large ; his sympathies and affections 
strong, and his executiveness almost boundless. If 
trained for the staoje he would have been a consummate 
impassioned actor. 

He is no philosopher ; he does not spend time in ana- 



166 LIFE OF 

lyzing causes or in indulging in comparisons; he grasps 
results, and uses his powerful perspective gift in carving 
out his way politically. 

He is very original and comprehensive, and is capable 
of putting parts together and drawing conclusions. He 
is reverential, and his religion consists in " doing unto 
others as he would have them do unto him." His Hope 
and Faith are strong ; he trusts God always, and man 
until deceived by him. 

His social affections are strong. He, when not en- 
gaged in national affairs, is, strictly speaking, a family- 
man, fond of home enjoyments, and devoted to wife and 
child — his little Mary, a fairy of seven years — of whom 
he speaks with all the tenderness of a fond father. He 
is mirthful as a child, and enjoys the sports and pas- 
times of a boyish nature. 

Mr. Pomeroy is an artist. His creative ability is 
large. His pen-and-ink sketches are so ably drawn that 
we can shut our eyes and still see the pictures portrayed 
in them. As a man he is familiar and democratic ; there 
is nothing exclusive about him ; he uses as studies the 
highest and the lowest specimens of humanity, and his 
wonderful descriptive powers enable him to give to the 
world the result of his investigations. 

We have faithfully endeavored to give a fair estimate 
of Mr. Pomeroy, politically and intellectually, judging 
as well by what we know of him as by the facts given 
us by those who have been long and intimately con- 



MARK M. POMEROY. 167 

nected with him, and we sum up all by giving the 
secrets of his wonderful success. In the first place he 
thoroughly understands himself, and therefore is con- 
versant with every phase of human nature, and when he 
undertakes to reach a goal, he does so, fully determined 
to win. 



168 LIFE OF 



CHAPTER XXII. 

As a popular orator. 

As we said before, Mr. Pouieroy is, as an orator, bold, 
dashing, original, forcible and eloquent, be it in appeal, 
illustration, or sarcasm. Fowler and Wells, the well- 
known phrenologists, say that he should have been a 
public speaker, rather than a writer, and class him as a 
statesman of high order, combining sense with ability. 
When speaking he is extempore entirely — never at a loss 
for words. 

He handles an audience as he would four-in-hand, and 
becomes at once on familiar terms with it. 

He uses wit, satire, sarcasm, appeal, argument, and 
illustration, alike with force, and holds his audience till 
the work be done. As a specimen of his powers in this 
respect, we give an extempore speech made by him at 
Waverly, N. Y., on the evening of Sept. 26, 1868, with- 
out other preparation than the school of events. It is a 
verbatim report as taken down by his short-hand re- 
porters, without addition, erasure, or alteration, and will 
bear perusal — the more, as it indicates his reasons for his 
political earnestness. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 169 

SPEECH OF MR. POMEROY. 

Ladies and Gentlemen of Waverly— After thanking 
you from a full heart for your generous welcome here, 
I ask from you to-night your attention more than your 
cheers. Let me say to you, my friends — for every work- 
ing man in America, every young man in this country, 
I care not whether he is Democrat or Republican, so 
long as he is honest, is my friend, and his prosperity is 
my happiness — let me say to you here to-night, I would 
rather have your attention than your cheers, and you 
will please me, as your friend, as one working for your 
interests, if you will remain perfectly quiet and not cheer 
me at all, and not give any demonstration of applause 
to anything I may say. I will state, furthermore, that 
if I am interrupted, if any gentleman sees fit to inter- 
rupt me by talking to his companions in the crowd, 
although he may do it kindly, that moment I shall 
leave the platform and talk to the people outside this 
densely packed temple. I wish to be heard. I ask 
your attention that you, my former fellow-citizens, my 
friends, all may understand what I say — to indorse the 
right and denounce the wrong, if any wrong positions 
are taken or words said here before the thousands as- 
sembled. First I will read to you from a very loyal, 
dark-complexioned, black and tan-colored handbill, 
which has been, by Republicans, distributed broadcast 
over the streets of Waverly. I wish your attention, 



170 LIFE OF 

ladies and men, as I intend to convert every Republican 
in this wigwam. I presume they call them wigwams 
out of compliment to Grant's early Indian experience. 
(Applause.) I see there are about one hundred and 
seventy-five Republicans here to-night ; I can tell them 
by their looks. They are not as wide between the eyes 
as Democrats, and act as if their palms itched for wool. 
(Applause.) 

" The bill reads as follows : 

"'INCANTATION OF THE DEMONS. 

KU-KLUX KLAN ! TURN OUT ! 

Double, double, toil and trouble, 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble ; 
Adder's fork, Copperhead's sting, 

Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, 
With the charm and powerful trouble, 

Like deviMbroth, boil and bubble.' 

"Brick Pomeroy, the champion of modern Democ- 
racy, the man who was driven out of Rosecrans' army, 
will boil the charmed pot in fort hell to-night in Wa- 
verly. 

"Brick Pomeroy, who happily calls the citizens of 
Waverly God-and-morality sneaks, who curses green- 
backs, and glorifies gray-backs, will give the Democracy 
the latest news from the place where it is 'Red-Hot.' " 

I presume you are the demons, and have come out 
to hear the head demon of all ! (Applause.) I have 



MARK M. P0MEK0Y. 171 

been represented as the very worst pill in the box. 
(Cheers.) But I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, and 
especially ladies of Waverly sewing-societies, that I am 
no worse than your own husbands, sons, brothers, and 
lovers, who run me down as the worst man in the' world. 
Nor am I bad enough to become a Republican. (Ap- 
plause.) 

For the kindness of some of my left-handed friends, 
in issuing this bill, and thus advertising me, they will 
please accept my heartfelt thanks — the more, as it is all 
at their expense. They tell us of a Ku-klux Klan: 
that it will be manifest at the election in November. 
Well, it will be a klan of working-men — of the young 
men who are now mortgaged to suj)port an aristocracy 
of bondholders ; it will be a klan of men working for 
their own interests ; it will be a klan that will vote for 
the right — vote to bring this country back to the peace 
and prosperity it does not now enjoy, and which it never 
will under Republican rule. (Applause.) This bill 
says that "Brick" Pomeroy, champion of the modern 
Democracy, was driven out of Rosecrans' army. It 
has been said I was driven out of Rosecrans' army. I 
never was in Rosecrans' army. I never was in any army 
except as newspaper writer. In 1862, I was driven 
out from the army of eastern Arkansas, from the army 
of the trans-Mississippi valley, then commanded by one 
Prentiss, of Illinois, one of the illustrious liars, robbers, 
and cotton-thieves of the army. Not because I was in 



172 LIFE OF 

the army, not for corruption, not for stealing, but, as the 
order stated, for stating, in the La Crosse Democrat, 
which, till that time, was an almost unknown paper, 
that in my opinion, after thirteen weeks of earnest ob- 
servation and attentive study of the way in which the 
war was conducted, it was my conviction, with a full 
understanding of what I said, that the war, which was 
being carried on by the people of the North, for the 
restoration of the Union and the preservation of their 
liberties, had become, through the mismanagement of 
cotton-stealing Generals, through the corruption of po- 
litical officers, under the sanction of an incompetent 
President, a murderous crusade for cotton, niggers, and 
plunder generally. For these writings I was given a 
mock trial, and ordered to leave the lines, go North, 
and not return- to the army under a penalty of being 
hung as a spy. It was not Rosecrans' army, but it was 
the army of the Northern people, commanded by a thief. 
It is a trifling thing, but there is nothing like having a 
thing right. One word more : I have been often ac- 
cused of being a traitor to my country ; accused of 
being in sympathy with the rebellion, and opposed to 
the Union. I have been accused thousands of times by 
the leaders of the Republican party now in power, but 
so rapidly going out of power, of being in sympathy 
with those who, they say, sought to destroy the princi- 
ples of liberty, and the institutions of America. Allow 
me here to state to you, my friends, and many are here 



MARK M. POMEROY. 173 

in this large temple who knew me years ago, before 
events crowded so thick and fast upon us, that never in 
my life was I an enemy to my country ! (Applause.) I 
have never sought to war upon the principles of liberty 
or the right. I have never joined issue with any party 
or people in a war upon the Constitution, the liberties 
of the people, the rights of the States, or the laws of my 
country. (Applause.) I loved my country in her peril. 
When a boy — a poor, dirty-fingered mechanic, a young 
working-man — the world lay all unopened before me. 
I had the same promise of life, the same hopes for the 
future, that you young men, you working-men, you Re- 
publicans who intend to vote for Grant and Colfax, and 
you who intend to vote for Seymour and Blair, have. 
I had the same hopes, same ambition, same desire to 
work and make myself a home, that you have. I was 
poor. Many of you knew me as a poor boy. I was 
young. I was inexperienced. I had been taught 
from earliest infancy that the lessons given us by the 
statesmen of America, were lessons for us youths to 
learn from, and for the citizens of America to emu- 
late. (Cheers.) I was taught that it was the duty of 
every citizen to love his country, to love his God, to 
love the home-ones of his heart, to love the principles 
of liberty, and to defend those principles, and the Con- 
stitution of his country, which protected him and his 
alike in the enjoyment of personal and national bless- 
ings. (Cheers.) I looked forward, as the young work- 



1 74 LIFE OF 

ing-men of my country all looked forward, to the day 
when I might have a happy home, earned by myself, 
when I might be surrounded by beloved ones, whom 
I could care for as we journeyed on toward the "golden 
home," to which we are all hastening, in the land of the 
leal, just over the Great River. I was willing to labor, 
as you are willing ; I wished wages, that when Saturday 
night came — the most blessed of all nights which God 
has given to us men of toil — I might take home to the 
loved ones the fruits of my industry. I have never 
wished to war upon the people, the principles of liberty, 
the rights of States, or the Constitution that protected 
me as a citizen, penniless though I often was ; and from 
that time to this I never have had any wish to injure 
my country, or to insult the patriotic sires now with Him 
above. I wanted protection for my earnings. I wanted 
to live as others who are good and true lived. I wished 
to grow up a man among men, a lover of the principles 
of liberty, and defender of the faith of my fathers. 
(Applause, long continued). 

When I was an apprentice boy here in Waverly, 
almost before Waverly was founded or formed into a 
village, I was tempted by the Republican party to for- 
sake Democracy, to forsake the principles and teachings 
of my fathers, forsake the interests of the people, and 
join the Republican party, which was then coming into 
power. Why was I tempted ? I will tell you why. The 
Republican party came into power before my initial 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 175 

vote was cast. When it commenced its career, it asked 
tbe people of America to forsake Democracy. It asked 
the young men, and especially the workingmen, to leave 
the Democracy and join issue with this new Republican 
party. Why ? Because it said it was a party in favor 
of retrenchment and reform— a party in favor of the 
protection of the people in their rights and interests. 
The Republican party said to us that there existed at 
the South an institution known as Slavery; that that 
institution was at war with us ; that it was antagonistic 
to the industrial interests of the North ; that it was the 
duty of every man in the North who loved his country, 
to defend the interests of his country by putting down 
the aristocracy at the South, by putting down those 
twin relics of barbarism — Slavery and Polygamy. We 
were told that there was an irrepressible conflict be- 
tween free and slave labor, and it was our duty here to 
put down the aristocracy in the South, no matter if that 
aristocracy was protected by the constitution of our 
country. 

Let us digress. Let us look at the constitution of 
our country. What was it ? Who made it ? What its 
purposes ? What its object? Who gave it strength and 
power ? How was it observed ? It was a sacred com- 
pact made between States, between Commonwealths at 
the time when our confederation of States was formed. 
That constitution guaranteed to the people North and 
to the people South certain rights and certain privileges. 



176 LIFE OF 

and it promised to defend them in their interests, earn- 
ings, and industry. At the time the constitution was 
formed, there existed in America an institution known 
as slavery. Those who formed the constitution held 
different ideas. Some men of the North wished slavery 
abolished, and some of the South did not wish it abol- 
ished. The people of the South refused to join the con- 
federation ; they refused to cast in their lot with the 
people ; they refused to surrender their rights as States 
or Commonwealths, unless this common constitution 
which was to be adopted would protect the people of 
the South the same as it protected the people of the 
Xorth, in their principles, earnings, and rights. The 
constitution was adopted, and it pledged the people of 
the South and Xorth — Virginia and Massachusetts alike 
— protection for their common interests. The Abolition- 
ists came into power following a forced necessity. They 
claimed " that the will of the people was the supreme 
law of the land." It was the right of the people of the 
Xorth to abolish slavery — no matter how many prom- 
ises were made in times of common danger to pro- 
tect it. 

The war came upon us. It broke in upon the interest 
of the people of the Xorth, the people of Xew England, 
the people who are so excessively pious that they " hang 
a cat on Monday for killing a rat on Sunday." (Cheers.) 
This agitation culminated, or brought on the war, which 
it has conducted ; and of its results I will speak in a few 



. MARK M. POilEEOT. 177 

moments. That war was a very serious one. It was a 
gigantic one. "When I was a boy here in Waverly, we 
had no idea of war. The dark cloud of battle hung not 
upon us as it has since. The Republican Party brought 
on the war — brought it on by seeking to interfere with 
the rights of the States, and seeking to deprive States 
in the South of the rights they had, under a common 
Constitution, helped create. It educated the South to 
believe, through Greeley, Banks, Helper book and 
Helper doctrine, that they had the right to secede ; and 
that it was for the interests of the Confederation that 
they would secede and depart from the Union. Horace 
Greeley, the illustrious father of the Republican Party, 
almost, or rather its wet-nurse, and the one who has 
adopted it, said that if the South wants to go out of the 
Union, let it go. It was the general opinion of the Re- 
publican Party through the North, that the people of 
the South had the right to go out from the Union if 
they saw fit. The people of the South, misguided, mis- 
informed, under the influence of certain men who be- 
lieved they were right, at last attempted secession. At 
last the South sought to withdraw from the Confedera- 
tion, because, as they said, they could not live at peace 
with their neighbors at the North, for the reason that 
their neighbors of the North did not wish to live at peace 
with them. They said if they had an aristocracy it only 
affected them and their interests, and did not interfere 
with the North. They said that if they had an aris- 

8* 



178 LIFE OF 

tocracy, it paid taxes and helped the North. They 
cited, in proof of their claims, the fact, that although 
they made large sums of money at the South by carry- 
ing on the husbandry of that section, they spent millions 
of dollars at the North ; that they gave employment to 
the mechanics of the North ; that they bought pianos, 
clocks, and carriages ; they bought articles of furniture, 
bought articles of luxury, because there was a superi- 
ority and ingenuity of mechanism in the North that had 
not been developed at the South, and which beautified 
and cheapened these articles, for the reason that it was 
the interest of the people there to give their attention 
to agricultural affairs, and they had not developed the 
mechanical resources of the South. They claimed that 
their so-called aristocracy benefited the people of the 
North. That it gave employment to thousands of 
workingmen ; and that the money made on the rice, 
sugar, and cotton plantations of the South, was largely 
expended in the machine-shops of New England. That 
it was expended all over New York ; that it gave em- 
ployment to thousands of women and children in the 
factories of New England. They sought to go out of 
the Union, and not interfere with our affairs as we had 
interfered with theirs. They went out to establish for 
themselves a separate and independent government and 
confederation, under their Constitution, looking for their 
interests, their rights, and their toil, as we looked out 
for ours — where they could have a right to regulate 



MARK M. POMEROY. 179 

their affairs in their own way. Then it was the war 
came upon us. When the people South had been led to 
believe that they had a right to secede, then it was that 
the loyal people of the North declared that secession 
was a heresy, and could not for one moment be tol- 
erated. I was at that time a Douglas Democrat. I 
said, as a young man, that the principle of State rights, 
and allowing every State to govern its own affairs, was 
the only safeguard of liberty here in America. (Great 
applause.) I was in favor *of the continuation of the 
Union in accordance with the good old plan. I said 
that the people of the North, through legislation in Con- 
gress, had no right to interfere with the local questions 
affecting the interests of any one of the counties in any 
one of the States. If we allow the peoj^le of one State, 
in her Legislature, or by her Congressional representa- 
tives, to interfere with another State to disturb her do- 
mestic relations, what safeguard for the future have we ? 
The State gives us protection. The State takes care of 
our children for us ; and it is to the State laws that we, 
the people, look for protection, as the States look to 
Congress for mutual protection in time of peace or war. 
The State alone protects us ; for the Confederation was 
formed for the better protection of the States by each 
other, and not to deprive each other of any right 
they had under the Constitution. (Many voices: 
that's so,' 'Good,' 'Good.') It is so! The Amer- 
ican people said so in days agone, when the Constitu- 



180 LIFE 0F 

tion was formed, and they are stating so to-day, all over 
the land, as you will see by the masses of enthusiastic 
people who are speaking for State rights, white suprem- 
acy, equal taxation, and an honest administration of the 
laws. (Cheers, and loud cries of 'Good! good!') At 
that time I was opposed'to secession. I did not join 
with the rebels South. I said it was the duty of the 
people to put down rebellion ; said that the States in 
the Union could not go out of the Union. I said the 
Confederation was formed to last till eternity. That it 
was the duty of every man, Democratic or Republican, 
young man or old, who loved his country, to stand by 
and defend the beautiful flag in front of me ; to stand 
by the defence of American liberty ; to stand by Amer- 
ica as our forefathers stood by it and for us ; and that 
he who would not stand by it, that he who would not 
give his voice, strength, or means to put down an armed 
rebellion that the Union might be saved until dissolved 
by common consent — that that man was not a patriot, 
and I did not like him ; I cared not whether he was 
Democrat or Republican, foreign or native-born, it made 
no difference. If he was for his country, and for the 
Constitution, liberty, and the laws, he was my friend. 
(Cheers.) 

If he was for the Constitution I would support him, 
as he would support the Constitution. If he was in 
favor of warring upon the interests and constitutional 



MAEK M. POMEROY. 181 

rights of any State or people he was my enemy, and I 
should so consider him. 

At last, when the war was well -upon us, after the 
Republican party had educated the workingmen to 
hate the aristocracy South — which brought us blessings 
instead of curses — after the fanatics of America had 
educated the people that it was their duty to war 
upon the Constitution — after the war came upon us 
then came a chance for the people to show their patri- 
otism. Then, also, came a right for them to criticise 
the administration, then came a duty for them to per- 
form, which was to hold the Republican party respon- 
sible — to force it to live up to its promises, and that 
duty as a citizen I proposed to do. (Gre*at applause.) 

The Republican party came into power promising 
retrenchment and reform. (Cries of ' That's so.') It 
said to me, as a young man, at a mass-meeting held in 
Waverly, in 1856, that it was the duty of the working- 
men to protect their interests, that it was the duty of 
the young men of America to look out for their inter- 
ests. (Great applause.) They said it was their duty 
to protect themselves, their States, and their children 
according to law, and according to the soul of the leg- 
acy left us by the patriot sires of the Revolution, who 
have gone to their homes just over the river. They 
said to us young men, that it was our duty to put down 
an administration that was corrupt. They said it was 



182 LIFE OF 



our duty to put down an aristocracy that compelled 
the laboring men of America to support it. (Cheers, 
and cries of ' Hear, hear.') 

The Republican party promised us retrenchment 
and reform. It said to me, if you will join with us, if 
you will forsake Democracy, we will give you a better 
government, a cheaper government. (' That's so,' and 
' Good, good.') We will give you more protection for 
life and liberty. We will give you greater freedom of 
speech. (Voices, ' But they didn't.') More protection 
for your homes, persons, and earnings. I will tell you 
why I warred upon it (the Republican party), why I 
did not and do not like it ; why I am in earnest, and 
positive in defence of the interests of my countrymen 
by birth or adoption, and why I intend to be while God 
spares me to work. 

I was branded as a traitor. For what ? Because I 
criticised the acts of the administration. (Cries of 'You 
did right,') I urged the putting down of the rebellion 
— urged the keeping of the States in the Union. I 
uro-ed the defence of the nagj and the Constitution, and 
the preservation, unimpaired, of the laws of the land ; 
but I did criticise the administration. I criticised the 
acts of Mr. Lincoln, for there was great cause. I criti- 
cised the acts of the Republican party. And I will tell 
you why. I had the right to under the Constitution of 
my country, as a citizen of America, as one endeavor- 
ing to guard the interests of the people : as the editor 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 183 

of a newspaper, and especially a Democratic newspaper, 
it was my sworn duty to stand by the principles of 
liberty, to stand by the Constitution of my country ; 
and, thank God, that duty I never have shirked in the 
hour of most extreme peril of life and property. (Cries 
of ' Good, good,' and tremendous cheering.) 

The Republican party said it was wrong to continue 
a party in power that warred upon our principles. 
After the country had been brought into war ; after 
the people had been educated to hate the right ; after 
the people of the North had been educated to hate the 
South — who were of us and with us, as they shall be 
again (cheers) ; after the minds of the young men and 
workingmen of the land had been poisoned against the 
sacred, blood-bought institutions of our country, and 
against the Constitution, and against the States, which 
it was alike our duty to stand by, support, and protect ; 
after the Republican party had come in power, and had 
demanded the management of its own affairs in its own 
way, then came a season of most extravagant corrup- 
tion, and wanton robbery of dead, living, and unborn 
people. Then came a season of tyranny and usurpation 
of power, the like of which was never before. Then 
came a season of profligacy and total disregard of right, 
and disregard of all promises to the people, to the 
workingmen, such as never had been witnessed by any 
other people on the face of the habitable globe. (Great 
cheering, and cries of ' Give it to them.'') 



184 LIFE OF 

(A gentleman here arose and said : Mr. Speaker — I 
would state that there is some danger that the roof 
will fall in because there are so many upon it.) — Well, 
I will appoint those on the roof a special guard to see 
that no more get up there. We have stood it out in 
times of danger (cheers), and so long as it holds, we 
are safe. (Cheers.) There are a great many Dem- 
ocrats now-a-days ; they are coming up from out of the 
ground, coming from the roof, coming from the woods ; 
and they are marching on toward the White House. 
(Cheers.) You see many of them here to-night, but you 
will see more before November. (Loud Cheers.) This 
Republican party promised us retrenchment and reform. 
What kind of retrenchment was it that took from the 
earnings of the workingmen of the East and the farmers 
of the West dollar after dollar to enrich New England 
speculators? Do you call this regarding the promise 
made the people when the Republicans sanctioned the 
destruction of two hundred and ninety-eight print- 
ing-offices in the land? Years agone, when there was 
one printing-office mobbed over there in Kansas, there 
went up a cry, a shriek and a howl from all the Re- 
publicans in the land. (Loud cries of 'That's so.') 
They shouted " A free press, free speech, free men, Fre- 
mont ! Down with Democracy ! — down with the party 
that will not throw the protecting arm of the adminis- 
tration around the people and protect them and their 
outspoken newspapers in their long-established rights." 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 185 

(Cheers.) And yet that party which came in power 
crying for free speech, which came in power charging 
corruption, profligacy, and usurpation of power, tyranny, 
and wrong upon the democratic party, sanctioned the 
destruction of nearly three hundred printing-offices. 
(Cries of, * That's too true— that's so.') It ordered the 
incarceration of hundreds and hundreds of the earnest 
defenders of liberty in the North. (Cries of ' Shame 
on the tyrants.') It put manacles on the wrists of hun- 
dreds of brave Democrats, and without trial or charge 
—merely answering the tinkling of a tyrant's bell at 
Washington — sent honest citizens to the dungeons and 
bastiles, the Forts Warrens and Fort Lafayette of the 
land, and kept them there till, in many cases, reason 
deserted its throne, and till some satrap — till the ven- 
geance of some infamous, cowardly, rotten, devilish, 
tyrant-protected despot had been satiated, and then 
men would be turned loose without a trial or a charge 
from which to clear themselves. This is the way the 
Republican party kept faith with us. This is the way, 
when that party promised to protect the freedom of 
speech it commenced from the first to war upon it, and as 
one of the editors of the country, as a young man stand- 
ing by the principles of liberty, honest and unused to 
court ways, it was my duty to denounce it. (Cries of 
'You did, good boy,' etc.) And it was my duty to 
charge it with infamous tyranny, usurpation of power, 
and disregard of every pledge made to the people, and I 



186 LIFE OF 

thank my God, standing here before assembled thou- 
sands, that through all the lessons and troubles of the 
past, I can raise my. face to Heaven, place my hand upon 
my heart, and say that I never indorsed the Repub- 
lican war upon liberty ; nor have I ever feared or ceased 
to denounce it as inhuman and at war with the inter- 
ests of America and the laboring men of my land, and 
I intend to fight that party as long as I live, because it 
is my duty and pleasure, my right and my sworn pur- 
pose, to defend liberty here in America. (Great cheer- 
ing.) No matter how many others may fail because 
of lack of pluck or moral courage, I shall stand by it 
to defend, till our country is saved or till we have all 
gone down together, buried under the bayonets of a 
centralized despotism — that despotism which wars upon 
ten States of the Union, and which to-day is hurrahing 
for Grant and Colfax, the nigger, and the bondholder 
of America. 

Look at your pet, Benjamin Butler, better known as 
the spoon-thief and woman-insulter of Amerfca ! (Groans 
for Butler). Look at that man and tell us of him. He 
helped educate' the people of the South to believe that 
the Democratic element of the North would never war 
upon them under any circumstances. He told them 
that if they wished to go out of the Union the Democ- 
racy would let them go. But the Democracy of the 
Union was for the Union and its Constitution, and de- 
fended that great heritage because that heritage and 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 187 

that instrument defended us, and it shall defend our 
children as it has defended us, if to re-establish it must 
come another war. (Cheers). Butler, years ago, told 
the South that the Democratic party was in sympathy 
with them, and in Baltimore and Charleston he voted 
fifty-two times for Jeff. Davis, and voted for secession. 
He voted to bring war upon the country. He was re- 
warded by Lincoln with a Brigadier-General's com- 
mission ; and from the time he donned the uniform he 
has with other thieves disgraced, his course has been 
one of corruption and wrong-doing, of fraud, deceit, in- 
famy, treachery, venality, and wickedness ; and for his 
aiding in the misleading of the people of America, for 
his sacrifice of life, and for his incompetency, he was 
rewarded by the Republican party that is in power to- 
day, with the position of leader. He stands to-day be- 
fore the world the leader of the Republican party. 
The man who forced his way from a back-seat to a front 
one in the intended impeachment of the chief Executive. 
He is the man who is looked upon as the great leader 
of the Republican party ; the man who furnishes it with 
more brains than all the other Republicans in the party. 
(Cries of .' spoons, spoons.') He don't furnish spoons, 
he takes them. (Applause.) He is playing the game 
where the more you put down the less you take up. 
(Cheers.) The Republican party has made its leaders 
of the Butlers — the spoon-thieves — of the Logans, of the 
men who attempted to raise regiments to go into the 



,188 LIFE OF 

Southern army, and even General Grant, who offered 
his services to the Southern Confederacy, and whose 
services were rejected, because the South had no faith 
in his competency, sobriety, or honesty. (Cheers and 
great laughter.) The Republican party promised us 
retrenchment and reform ; it has not given us that. It 
promised us an honest administration ; and I will ask 
any fair-minded Republican here to-night — ask any 
honest Republican in the country — if that party was 
honest — if it has kept faith with the people ? If it has 
defended free speech ? If it has stood by the interests 
of the people ? If it has protected the working-man ? 
If it has done well for the young man ? I will leave 
it for any of you Republicans; and if there are any here 
who are honest, who can say that the Republican party 
has kept faith with the people ; if I cannot contradict 
him successfully, I will step from this stand never more 
to raise my voice in defence of the liberties of my 
country. It did not care for the interests of the people 
when it gave contracts whereby millions of dollars were 
stolen from the United States during its hours of agony. 
It did not keep faith with the workingmen while they 
were seeking- to put down the rebellion at the South. 
While the workingmen were seeking to defend their 
rights and themselves under the Constitution, (cries of 
'That's so,') it, by Republican legislation, gave your 
notes, as workingmen. It made you?* notes the bonds. 
It sold those bonds for forty cents on the dollar. It de- 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 189 

clared that the holders of these bonds or notes, which 
you must pay, should be exempt from taxation, in the 
pockets of the bondholders of the country; and yet 
there are in the land, men who ask us still to work with 
the Republican party. There are men who have the 
brazon effrontery to ask us to vote for their candidates, 
who ask us to support bondholders in idleness, after 
they have robbed the people to put gold in the pockets 
of the rich, and furrows on the face of the poor ; and 
who voted for the paying of the people — the working- 
men, the soldier who fought, and the widows of those 
who fell — in a depreciated currency ;« while the bond- 
holders who gave no blood, and the speculator who 
stole himself rich, is to have gold. (Cries of 'Good 
boy.') Is this the way you keep faith with the laboring- 
man of America ? Is this the way to encourage indus- 
try, by legistating labor into slavery, and setting up 
protected aristocrats for us to worship? Is this the 
way you propose to win votes from the people of Amer- 
ica, by telling them in advance that you will make th< m 
the slaves of the moneyed power of the country? 

I don't like the Republican party, because it trifled 
with our interests and set its filthy body on the beauti- 
ful robe of Liberty, and tore the canvas of our national 
painting with its bayonets. (Applause.) It trampled 
the workingmen and the young men of America under 
an aristocracy that never existed in this country till the 
Republican party came in power ; and which aristocracy 



190 LIFE OF 

I believe, as I believe in Almighty God, I shall live to 
see put clown under the feet of the honest, home-loving, 
patriotic, laboring men of the country, the Constitution 
of which declares that ' taxation must and shall be 
equal.' (Continued cheering, and loud cries of ' Good, 
good ! Go on !') As the editor of a Democratic news- 
paper, striving for the defence of liberty, I thought I 
had a right to criticise the acts of the Administration. 
(Cries of ' You had, you had V) When I saw bad men 
placed in office — when I saw your sons, your brothers, 
your friends, and my friends, soldiers of the country — 
the private soldiers of America, who were carrying on 
the war — when I saw them sacrificed at the South, as I 
did, merely for the gathering in of cotton, horses, mules, 
plunder, and confiscated property — when I saw them 
fall under the fire of the farmers of the South, who were 
called guerrillas — when I saw them go down hundreds 
by hundreds into the hospitals, to suffer and to die — 
then I said the war, which was begun by the people of 
America, had become, through the profligacy, corrup- 
tion, and incompetency of the Administration, but a 
murderous crusade for cotton and plunder ; and, gentle- 
men, I believe I was right. (Cries of ' You were — good 
boy !') And the people of America, and the people of 
other nations,- believed that I was right then; and as 
the day dawns upon us anew, they are believing still 
more that I was right. And the people will strengthen 
that belief by their increased Democratic votes this fall, 



MAEK M. P0MEB0Y. * 191 



• 



and the denunciation of the rotten party now in power, 
but soon to go out. When I saw the Republican party 
warring upon the principles of liberty, I spoke against 
it ; when I saw it warring upon the interests of the 
workingmen, I spoke against it. I never in my life said 
one word against the honest soldiers of my country. I 
defy any man, alive or dead, standing here in fleshly 
presence, or by ghostly power, coming from any place, 
known or unknown, to point to one spot where, by word 
or letter, by pen, ink, or with types, I ever said one 
word against the honest soldiers of my country. (Great 
applause.) I defy any man to show it. If any man can 
show it, I will give that man every dollar I am worth in 
the world, and agree to black my face, curl my hair, 
and become his most abject slave the rest of my life, al- 
though black slaves are more fashionable now. (Cheers.) 
I will tell you, workingmen, and you soldiers who have 
been to the front, what I did say, openly and boldly : 
I said that the Administration which would see private 
soldiers sacrificed, to put money in the pockets of in- 
competent generals, was cruel, wrong, corrupt ; that it 
was trifling with the liberties of the people, and I hated 
that Administration. (Applause.) I never said one word 
against the honest private soldiers or the honest officers 
of the armies of my country. I spoke against those who 
wore the straps, and who sacrificed private soldiers for 
the purpose of plunder. I said these men were wrong. 
They did not care how much of your blood they spilled 



192 LIFE OF 

so they could put money in their pockets. The man, 
North, South, East, or West, Democrat or Republican, 
old man or young man, who will defend that flag — the 
man who will stand by the interests of his country, to 
defend the principles of liberty — the man who will bare 
his heart to the rattling; storm of hail as it comes from 
the enemy's guns — that man is a patriot, he is a soldier, 
he is a brave man, and I love him. And I care not what 
be his creed or politics, nor where he fights ; and as I 
love him, so do I hate, despise — and God knows I am 
honest in the matter — the coward who would take ad- 
vantage of his official position, and, because given shoul- 
der-straps to wear, would sacrifice, for the purpose of 
plunder, private soldiers ; who, unmoved, saw them 
suffering in hospitals — who put them on board rotten 
steamboats, and saw them go down, never to rise again. 
I have warred against incompetent American generals. 
I have warred upon a rotten Administration, and warred 
upon incompetent officers who entered the army solely 
for purpose of plunder; and, thank God, I have never 
had occasion to ask pardon of any power on earth for 
this offence against ' Republican loyalty,' and I never 
intend to. There is no power that can pardon a man 
simply for doing his duty. (Applause.) They called me 
traitor. They say I am the, worst man in the world. If 
I am that, why have I not been punished ? I stood by 
my rights. I stood by my principles. I stood by the 
interests of those who were fighting, better than they 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 193 

stand by themselves, when they hurrah for the party 
that has divided this country ; that keeps ten States out 
of the Union ; that has mortgaged every son of America, 
every laborer, every child of the poor man to the bond- 
holders of the country, who are exempt from taxation, 
and who live on the hard-earned money of the working- 
men of my country. (Cheers, and cries of ' Good boy.') 

Some of them say I am red-hot. I have been opposed 
by Democrats and Republicans. They tell me I am 
too extreme, too violent ; that it was not according to 
Democratic principles to stand to Democratic profes- 
sions. Gentlemen, I tell you this, I take my Democracy 
just as many of you take your whisky — straight, with- 
out milk or water. (Laughter.) Democracy with me 
means Democracy ; liberty means liberty ; right means 
right ; wrong means wrong ; and the wrong I war 
against. The Constitution means the Constitution ; 
the rights of the States means the rights of the States ; 
the rights of the people means the rights of the people. 
(Cheers.) If I see a man stealing, I call him a thief 
(Cries of ' That is right.') 

My dictionary was brief. My education was, per- 
haps, neglected in my youth ; but I was educated to be 
honest, and that education I have never departed from. 
(Applause, and cries of ' That is right.') If a man lied, 
I said he was a liar. If a man tinkled a little bell and 
sent people to the bastiles of the land, I said he was a 
despot. (Applause, and loud cries of Good boy.') If 

9 



194 LIFE OF 

the President of the United States sanctioned this war 
upon liberty, while sworn to defend that liberty, while 
asking the people of America to fight for that liberty, 
and when he had the full power of America in his 
hands, when he consented to this great wrong, I said 
he was a tyrant — and before God I believe I was right. 
(Great applause.) If I am not right, then, gentlemen, 
history will correct me, and the American people will 
correct me ; but they are not correcting me this year 
quite as much as they were. (Cheers.) 

Then the Democrats said to me : " Go slow ; don't 
be so extreme ; don't talk out so ; don't— don't— don't 
be so ugly, ' Brick.' " (Laughter.) Some of my ' friends' 
said, if you will just come in with this party you will 
make money! You can't fight against the current! 
This is now a military necessity. If you will only go 
just a little slow, and help Jones, or Smith, or Brown 
to get the straps on the shoulders, we will make money, 
we will divide, and we will get along nicely ! We will 
float with the current, and we can all get rich. The 
trouble was, too many men wanted to get rich, no mat- 
ter at whose expense. (Applause.) 

" Gentlemen," said I, " you can't do it in that way. 
Go into the Republican party, steal, rob, plunder, com- 
mit all sorts of outrages ; but don't claim to be Demo- 
crats. (Cries of 'Good boy.') If it is Democracy to 
endorse Republicanism^ if it is Democracy to endorse 



MARK M. POMEROY. 195 

corruption, endorse tyranny, endorse despotism, endorse 
this trifling icith the rights of the people, then, thank 
God, I am no Democrat. (Loud cries of ' Right ! 
right !') But if it is Democratic to stand by liberty, by 
the Constitution, by the rights of the States, to stand 
by the laws of my country, to stand by the interests of 
the workingmen and young men of the land, then I am 
Democratic, and always intend to remain such.' (En- 
thusiastic applause. ) 

Some said, " Go slow ; you can't catch flies with 
vinegar." They said we must use honey for catching 
flies. I was not in the fly-catching business; I was 
fighting the men who were mortgaging the people of 
America as slaves to the bondholders, and those who 
were trampling the interests of our country under their 
feet. The result was this. After I was sent home from 
the army I was a very ' bad' man. The administration 
thought I was a ' bad' man ; but it said : " Pomeroy, 
don't criticise us, we don't like it ; you are a little too 
red-hot." The administration offered me a situation in 
the army ; offered me the colonelcy of a cavalry regi- 
ment if I would agree not to criticise the acts of the 
administration. I said : " There are thousands of weak- 
kneed Democrats who will do this ; but I can't do it. 
I cannot agree to become any man's slave and not crit- 
icise his acts." 

Let me relate a little incident that occurred in New 



196 LITE OF 

York. It is funny — rather funny ; but still it is true. 
I relate it at the request of the gentleman on the stage, 
who just now, in a whisper, asked me to. 

Coming out from dinner on Monday, I saw standing 
on the streets a one-le^o-ed soldier. He had attached 
to his back by a strap a hand-organ. By means of this 
organ he procured the means of subsisting himself, 
wife, and three children. I walked along beside him, 
and asked him his name ; he told me. I asked him 
where he lost his arm ; he said at Gettysburg. 

" You were in the army ?" 

" I was." 

" Go in a Republican ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" Come out a Republican ?" 

" JVb, by " (and he swore, but I will not.) 

" Grind that organ for a living ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" Come up in front of my office and you can start up 
a little tune for me." 

He went to the office, No. 166 Nassau-street, dropped 
his hand-organ for business, and I noticed on the top 
of his organ a paper announcing that the man who car- 
ried that organ had paid ten dollars a year license to 
the Government for the privilege of grinding that organ 
one year. 

" Did you say you were a soldier ?" 



MAEK M. POMEROY. 197 

" I was." 

" Fought to restore the country ?" 

"I did." 

" Paid ten dollars license to the Government you lost 
a leg to save !" 

" Yes, sir." 

" What is that license for?" 

" That goes to make up a revenue for the bond- 
holder, as I understand it, and that's what makes me 
a Democrat. I don't like any such business as that." 

" Play a tune, and I will pay you for it." 

He played " Away Down South in Dixie." I said : 

" That is nice ; I like that. That was a loyal tune. 
I like it for two reasons : Abraham Lincoln said it was 
the nicest tune he ever heard in his life. (Laughter.) 
He fell in love with it. Abraham was loyal — no man 
can doubt that — and wishing to emulate his example, I 
loved Dixie. Dixie was loyal — I loved Dixie, and 
therefore I was loyal. (Great laughter.) 

" Play it again." 

He played it. 

" What will you ask to sit in front of my office for a 
week, from one o'clock till four, and play that one tune 
continually?". 

" Two dollars per day." 

" Very well, I am going into the country to talk to 
the Democrats, and with all who labor, who come to 



198 LIFE OF 

hear me, and I want you to play this tune here till I 
come back. Go into the office on Saturday night, and 
my cashier will pay you." 

Down went his organ and out came " Away down 
South in Dixie." He played it right straight along. 
A crowd gathered around, and one old gentleman 

says, 
" When are you going to change that tune ?" 
" I don't know ; that man hired me to play this one." 
" Oh, my God !" says he, and moved on. (Great 

laughter.) 

By-and-by, down came a gentleman from up-stairs, 

of whom I lease the premises, and said : 

"Move on, or you will attract a crowd. You are 

getting up a nuisance." 

He said, "I cannot move on. I am hired to stay 

here." 

"Who hired you?" 

" This fellow that runs this newspaper here." 

" I don't want you to play here. You are a nuisance. 
Move on." 

I cannot ; I will lose my wages." 
Play some other tune, then." 

" No, it is in the contract that I play this one tune," 
and he kept playing away. 

The gentleman went up stairs, and in a few moments 
came down again. He spoke to one of my clerks and 
said: 



u 
a 



MARK M. POMEROY. 199 

" I wish you would get an order for this man to 
leave." 

The clerk replied : 

"I can't do it. If I order him away I lose my 
place." 

" Do you mean to say that Mr. Pomeroy has hired 
this fellow to play that tune all day ?" 

"Yes, and every day for a week." (Laughter.) 

"Do you think Pomeroy would maintain a nui- 
sance ?" 

" I don't know anything about that, but if Mr. Pome- 
roy has told the soldier he will maintain him playing 
Dixie for a week, you may bet your bottom dollar he 
will do it. (Laughter.) 

The third time he came down and said : 

" I want you to move away from the front of this 
building." 

I heard the remark and said to him : 

" Hold on ; I rent half this building ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" Pay ten thousand dollars a year for what I oc- 
cupy ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" This half is mine ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" This man has a right to play this tune in front of 
my half." 

" I don't like the tune. Let him play some other time." 



200 LIFE OF 

" No ; I want that one tune played. It suits me. Mr. 
Lincoln said it was the best tune that ever was in- 
vented." (Great laughter.) 

"That soldier," said he, "cannot stay here." 

Said I, " He can stay there. That soldier was a Re- 
publican soldier. He went into the army and fought. 
He went there to save the country. He lost a leg fight- 
ing the rebellion. He has returned to his home. He 
finds his wife and children in want. He pays ten dollars 
a year license for the privilege of grinding this rickety 
old hand-organ. That license goes to make up a reve- 
nue, which goes into the pockets of your bondholders. 
(Applause.) That soldier fought for his liberty ; he is 
having it now. I want him to stand right here, and 
play every day, and this same tune." 

" Will not some other tune do ?" 

" No, I want this tune, to remind the workingmen of 
New York who pass by here every day, that ' Away 
down South in Dixie' are carpet-baggers, lazy niggers, 
and Freedmen's Bureaus, a great big standing army, 
that the workingmen of the North are laboring day 
after day to support, at war upon the receipts and in- 
terests of the North, as they are at war upon the hus- 
bandry of the South. I want him to play that same 
tune, in order that the people of the North may know 
where their money has gone to. He is going to play 
here ; and if you molest him I will mash your head for 
you." (Great laughter.) 



MARK M. POMEROY. 201 

I left the office at five minutes before four yesterday, 
and he stood there grinding, "Away down South in 
Dixie." I am going to hire him to grind all next week. 
Still, it is not pleasant music for the bondholder. I 
know it is not nice; but they have given us a little 
trouble, and this is one of the ways in which I propose 
to have my share of revenge out of them. 

Makes a Republican speech. 

Now, a little Republican speech, if it is possible for a 
Democrat to make one. I may fail. If I do, you must 
take the will for the deed. A few years ago (I am talk- 
ing as a Republican), I came as a Republican, and 
preached to you here the necessity of a change of the 
Government. I said that the power of the Government 
depended on the consent of the governed. I said there 
was a need of change — that we must have retrenchment 
and reform ; and I told you, Mr. President, that the 
Administration — that the party which would submit to 
the mobbing of one printing-office in America — deserves 
to be forever annihilated. I said, as a Republican, 
that the Democrats were wrong ; that they were dis- 
honest. I made speeches here, and charged you to take 
care of your interests. I made war speeches ; I urged 
the necessit}^ of putting down the aristocracy at the 
South. I asked you to look out for your interests, that 
America might be greater. I charged you that it was 
your duty to protect your earnings. Then came a war. 



202 LIFE OF 

Then I was in my glory. I did not fight worth a cent. 
As a military genius I never was a success. But I could 
make war speeches. I was blessed with more gift of 
gab than any six auctioneers. I urged you working- 
men, you young men, to leave your homes. I said : 
" Follow the destinies of your flag — take the flag and go 
forth against the rebellion. We at home will take care 
of your interests." Oh yes ! I made lots of war speeches. 
I promised the workingman a great deal. I told him : 
" If you will fight, I will take care of your wife ; I will 
protect your children ; I will hoe your farm ; I will milk 
your cows ; I will churn the milk into butter ; I will sell 
the butter, and put the money in my pocket, if I get a 
chance." I figured up how much you could make, you 
men who really loved your country, by going to the 
war. I did not put this question to you on a patriotic 
basis. I said : " If you will leave your homes, your 
farms, your workshops, and go forth to put down the 
rebellion, we will pay you thirteen dollars a month. 
Besides that, we will pay bounties — money in advance 
— so you may leave it with your families ; us good loyal 
Republican fellows will do it ;" and lots of you believed 
we were honest. Some of you fought, some of you re- 
turned, others sleep on the battle-fields of the South. 
What have I been doin^ meanwhile? I didn't fio-ht. 
Fighting was not my best hold ! I was willing to carry 
on this war, no matter at what expense of life. I was 
willing to shed the last drop of blood, and yet, some- 



MAKE M. POMEROY. 203 

how, I could not get the first drop of my own started. 
I was willing to sacrifice my uncles, my cousins, my 
nephews — everybody fit to carry a musket. I was wil- 
ling to sacrifice every one of the relatives I had — pro- 
vided they would leave me their property. That was 
what I was after — spoons. I made war speeches to you. 
You did not want to go to the front. ' I said it was 
necessary to go. I cited the Constitution — your inter- 
ests. I said it was a duty you owed to your country to 
fight ; and that we would pay you for it. How did I 
pay you ? I didn't put my hand into my pocket and 
haul out the money. I gave you bounties. I had a 
certain JS"ew England knack which allowed me to figure 
this thing out very nicely. 

But then came calls for more troops. The war was 
lagging. We must have more men. The poor people 
must be more interested in their country, because this 
Government was established in their interest. There- 
fore let us, gentlemen, who can't fight — Kepublicans 
who must remain at home to take care of the Demo- 
crats, and protect our soldiers from the fire in the rear — 
let us devise means to start the people oif to the front. 
We will pay every poor man, every Irishman, every 
German, every young man, $250. How will we raise 
the money ? We will sign the notes of the country : 
we will give the bonds of Waverly, and sell them in 
market. For a hundred dollars' worth of bonds we will 
receive a hundred dollars cash. Then we will pay the 



204 LIFE OF 

money to the poor man, and he can do the fighting. 
The poor man takes the money, leaves it with his wife, 
goes to the front and becomes a .patriot. This is a very 
nice arrangement. Therefore, we vote that we will thus 
raise $10,000 in this city. We sign the bonds which 
are but your notes — you men who own property, who 
own machine-shops, stores, farms — these notes you must 
pay at some time. We signed $10,000 worth of your 
notes. We then take these notes over to the rich man 
across the way, and say : " Here are notes which the 
people will pay in five years. We will give you seven 
per cent, interest on your money. We want to borrow 
$10,000 on the notes." The rich man says, "No: I 
can't see it. It is a great question with me whether the 
rebellion will be put down. I worked hard for my money, 
and don't propose to squander it." " But we must have 
the money. Those poor j)eople won't fight unless they 
have some recompense." The rich man says he will let 
us have, for a thousand-dollar note, four hundred dollars 
in currency, or give us, perhaps, five hundred dollars on 
the note, the best bargain we can make. If you don't 
go forward at one call and for one bounty, you are 
drafted ; therefore you are compelled to take the money 
we offer you. The rich man pays five hundred dollars 
on the note, and Ave hand the money to you. We re- 
alize, as agents, a few dollars for our trouble. You go 
forth to fio-ht. What is the result? The workino-man 
who went to the front and perilled his life to put down 



MARK M. TOMEEOY. 205 

the rebellion returns to his home and works year after 
year to take up the note which was sold for him — sold 
at fifty cents — he pays one hundred cents on the dollar 
back. He pays interest to the rich man. He pays 
the entire debt of the nation, and the rich money- 
lender pays nothing. I, as a Republican, made lots of 
money in the bonnty business. I took the contract to 
fill the quota for Tioga County. I sold the bonds — ■ 
your bonds — bonds on every foot of land in this country 
— notes which you, workingmen, must pay — and with 
the money put five hundred men into the army, and ten 
percent, of $10,000 of it went into my pocket. That 
was not much money for a loyal man to make. 

I had been talking of retrenchment and reform — 
talking nicely of conducting the Government with econ- 
omy. I had said it was an insult to the American peo- 
ple to rob labor of its reward. I went to Washington 
one day and secured a contract. They wanted ships in 
which to send soldiers down to New Orleans and bring 
confiscated goods back. I bought a rotten old hulk of 
a steamer in New York. Wishing to benefit the coun- 
try in its hour of peril, I sold this old hulk, which I 
gave 15,000 for, for $100,000. I only made $95,000 
profit. I was loyal. I was an honest man, the noblest 
work of God. I was a man in sympathy with the peo- 
ple ; therefore $95,000 was all I wanted. I could not 
have made money if I had not been loyal ; if I had not 
had friends in Washington— a cousin in Congress — a 



206 LIFE OF 

« 

loyal man — a man who shouted : " Down with aristoc- 
racy; take care of the people." 

I had also another cousin in the Senate. He was 
also loyal. I had to divide profits with them both, for 
it is expensive to be loyal. . But I made $50,000 or 
$75,000 clear, and put it in my pocket. I had friends 
in Washington ; and I tell you, my friends, there is 
nothing like having friends in power. You may talk 
of having friends in the West, friends in Ireland, friends 
in Heaven even ; but they don't hold a candle to the 
friends you have in the Treasury — those who are will- 
ing to haul out and divide with you — those friends who 
put their hands into the Treasury, and who all the 
while pray : ' O Lord, deliver us from these Democrats, 
who keep up a fire in the rear.' The hulk I sold was 
rotten. It was laden with a thousand troops — your 
brothers, sons — and started for Hatteras Inlet. Up 
came a storm ; down went your troops, your muskets, 
article after article, which had cost the people money. 
Up comes a call for more troops, for more muskets. I 
have contracts with my rich New England friends, 
who don't like the Democratic majorities because they 
say they war with New England interests. I have a 
chance to sign more bonds. I am growing richer. You 
are growing poorer. The war is carried on successfully. 
But we Republican leaders, the great head-lights of this 
1 God and morality' engine, we are all right. 

At last the war is over. The rebellion is put down. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 207 

You are told you can return to your homes. The Pres- 
ident told you you were not warring upon the rights of 
States or of any people. You were simply defending 
your own interests. You return, and find things greatly 
changed. I was poor when the war commenced. I 
could not have got trusted for a No. 2 mackerel. I 
was immensely poor — but loyal — but now am all safe 
and sound. 

The taxes are very high now. Let us see how you 
raise your money for improvements, for education, for 
taking care of your paupers. By taxation. How do 
you do it ? I, as an assessor, take my book in my hand, 
start out and call on the poor people. 

"I go over to my. friend Michael Flanagan, who 
came here from Ireland. 

" How are you getting along ?" 

" Divilish hard luck I have of it." 

" Do you like America ?" 

" Bad cess to America." 

" How much money are you worth ?" 

"Nothin' at all." 

"You have a horse and cart — you are a drayman 
down here in the village — that is worth $300, and taxes 
are very high. You came from Ireland, Michael, to 
America to escape the oppression and unequal taxation 
of the old country, which kept you always in debt. 
You cast in your lot with us, and therefore you must 
pay your share of the tax. Don't we take care of you, 



208 LIFE OF 

don't we give you work on the public works, and don't 
we cheat you out of the money if we get a good 
chance ?" 

" Faith, that's so." 

"How long have you been working to earn that 
horse and cart ?" 

" I commenced working on the railroad. I had a 
dollar a day in Democratic times, and saved a dollar a 
week. I laid up three hundred dollars, and bought a 
horse and an Irishman's buggy. I earned a living for 
myself and family." 

" I want you to pay seventeen dollars on your horse 
and cart." 

Michael says he hasn't that much money to his 
name. I tell him it is his duty to have that much. I 
tell him to sell his horse, and he will have enough to 
pay his tax and something over, and next year, Michael, 
you will only have to pay taxes on your cart, d'ye see ? 
Your taxes will be just half as high, and you will have 
a lot of money left, so you can buy a dress for your 
wife. You can educate your children, go on a spree, 
sit on your cart and whistle ' Dixie' or ' St. Patrick's 
Day in the Morning.' Next year you sell your cart, 
and you will have enough money to pay your taxes and 
have something over. And the year' after that, Michael, 
you will not have anything at all to pay taxes on. The 
property is all in the country : you should not grumble. 
What's the difference whether the rich man or the poor 



MARK M. P0MER0Y. 209 

man has it ? We will fix it for you, Michael, you go 
and pay your taxes. Michael says he don't exactly see 
it ; but he is obliged to see it. 

Then I go over to my friend Yon Schneider, and I 
say : " Good-morning, Mr. Von Schneider, how do you 
get along ?" 

"Very good, Mr. Bumeroy, I hope you ish veil." 
" Well, Mr. Van Schneider, how are you fixed ?" 
"Veil, Mr. Bumeroy, I ish fixed so bad as never 
vas !" 

" How long have you been to this country ?" 
" I dink it ish apout ten years — I guess not !" 
"How much money did you have when you came 
here ?" 

" About six tousand dollar." 
" Any children, Mr. Von Schneider ?" 
" Veil now, Mr. Bumeroy, I told you how it vas : You 
see, 'pout ten year ago I come mit dis country, und I 
pring mine frau and mine two sons, and I makes mine- 
self a little home, and I live mit mine boys, who ish 
such goot poys as never vas. Und den py and py dey 
comes mit de fitens, und dey say to mine boy Yacup 
(Jacob) dat if he pese loyal he vill go mit de flag und 
fight de patties mit de country. Und so dey come 
along mit de pig prass pand speilin ' Who's pin here 
since I's pin gone' (laughter), or some other of dem 
patriotic tunes, and dey takes mine boy down to Pig 
Pethel, where dem troops mit General Butler shoots at 



210 LIFE OF 

each other for exercise (loud laughter, and cries of c The 
Beast ! Spoons !' &c.) ; und den my poy gets killed 
down dere. Und den py and py dey comes along again 
speilin mit der pand, and dey takes mine boy Yohannas 
(Johannas) down where General Panks is preakin de 
pack pone of de rebellion mit cotton (laughter), und 
den my other boy he git killed. Den I vas loyal, and 
I takes my monish what is all gold, und I lends him to 
de Government to help put down de rebellion. Yell, 
den, py and py I tinks I go pack to de old country and 
pring mine m udder and some of my br udders over to 
dis country, und I go to de man what has de sheeps, 
und I say I want some little dickets, but de man he 
say, ' Oh, no ; we don't take that kind of monish here.' 
Und I say, * All right ; I goes pack and gits my monish 
from de Government.' When I comes to de Govern- 
ment I say, ' Mr. Government, now I vants to go to de 
old country, and you vill please give me my monish ;' 
but he say, ' JVo, no !' Und de Mr. Government he look 
very wise, and he say, ' Ye vill give you dis other kind 
of monish ;' and so I gits fifty cent in de greenbacks for 
every one of my dollar in gold. Yat you dink of dat, 
Mr. Bumeroy?" 

" Well, how much have you got now ?" 

" Yell, I got 'pout three thousand tollar in greenbacks, 
und it is all in my little farm, und I makes a little monish 
to support mine frau and mineself." 

And then I tell Mr. Yon Schneider that I must tax 



MARK M. POMEROY. 211 

him for his property, and he must pay it to my partner, 
Mr. Collector. 

[The speaker was here interrupted by the delegation 
from Owego, Towanda, Elmira, and other cities and 
towns, being compelled to leave the Wigwam to take 
their respective trains for home; Before leaving, at the 
request of the speaker, enthusiastic cheers were given 
for Seymour and Blair and the white ladies of America, 
followed by continued cheers for Mr. Pomeroy.] 

I next go to my friend Billy Williams. 

" How are you ? 

" Very well, considering. I was in the army. Lost 
a leg. Am now hobbling around my farm, trying to 
support my mother." 

" How much money are you worth ?" 

" About a thousand dollars." 

" Fought to save the country ?" 

"I did, sir, like a little man." 

" Are you a Republican ?" 

" I am, sir, every time." 

" All right ; I honor your spunk. The Government 
exempts you from taxation ?" 

" No, sir; I don't want exemption." 

" You pay taxes ?" 

* Yes, sir." 

"For what?" 

" Don't know and don't care. A soldier asks no ques- 
tions but obeys orders." (Applause.) 



212 LIFE OF 

The next morning the Collector comes along to me. 
Ah ! Good-morning ! Come and take a glass of wine 
with me. It don't cost me anything you know, the 
Government pays for all this. How much are you 
worth ? I reply : Half a million. 

" Why, Pomeroy, I knew you when you was not worth 
a dollar." 

" Oh, yes, but I was loyal. I went into the spoon 
business ; I sold clocks ; I -filled contracts ; I fixed my- 
self very nice." 

" I knew you when you first started out as a Repub- 
lican ; when you could have carried all your clothes in 
a cio-ar-box, and had room for a Grecian bend besides." 

" Can't help that. Was loyal. I was a Republican. 
I took care of the people's money." 

" How much are you worth ?" 

" Half a million." 

" That's very nice. We have to raise taxes, and they 
are very heavy this year. We have to take care of 
several crippled soldiers. We must have free schools. 
We must pay for sheriffs; we have judges and juries 
to pay. We have town and city expenses, road expenses, 
State expenses, all sorts of expenses. Taxes are very 
high. As you are worth $500,000 your taxes will be 
$17,000, and you will not feel it. How much is your 
income ?" 

" About $73,000." 

" We will tax you about $11,000 on it." 



MARK M. POMEROY. 213 

" Oh, no ! I can't see it. I don't intend to pay taxes." 

" Where is your money invested ? In machine- 
shops ?" 

" No.' 3 

" In railroad enterprises ?" 

"No." 

" Where ?" 

"In Government bonds. A Radical Legislature, a 
Radical Congress, caring for the interests of the people 
— while the people were straining every nerve to put 
down the rebellion — has kindly freed the aristocracy 
from paying its share of the tax, and. created an aris- 
tocracy at the North. We hold the bonds which the 
people must pay ; and it is declared that these bonds 
are exempt from taxation ; and I hold these bonds. I 
have not a dollar tax to pay. I am one of the pets of 
New England. Excuse me, I do not pay taxes. You 
can ask Flanagan, Schneider, and Williams. You may 
ask the workingmen for their taxes. Go to the widows. 
Go to the wives. Go to the orphan children. Go all 
over the country, but don't ask me. I am protected by 
Republican legislation; I am protected by Congress, 
that has legislated the people into slavery. The people 
must pay me interest in gold. I bought those notes at 
forty cents on the dollar." 

Now hurrah for Grant and Colfax — the bondholder — 
for anything that compels the poor man to support the 
rich. Why don't you cheer? (Unbroken silence.) 



214 LIFE OF 

• 

[The speaker here resumed 7iis Democratic speech.'] 

Yesterday morning, while a guest of George Magee, 
at "Watkins, while reading jn the Bible my morning 
chapter, I found a passage, to which I wish to call the 
special attention of the Republicans here to-night who 
believe in St. Paul. I believe in the Bible ; I believe in 
morality; I believe in Democracy; I believe in the 
right ; I believe in protecting the interests of the work- 
ingmen ; and I believe St. Paul was a workingman when 
he wrote the inspired words of which I hold here a copy. 
I would state to you, my friends in Waverley, that many 
of you believe, or have been told, that I was a drunken 
loafer; that I was a very bad man; but I say to you 
here to-night, friends, that here stands before you a man 
who never was intoxicated in his life ; who is employ- 
ing, to-day, over two hundred men in his respective 
printing-offices, and employs not one man who uses in- 
toxicating liquor as a beverage. (Continued applause.) 
That is sufficient for that charge. 

The passage is 2d Thessalonians, third chapter, 
6-15 verses. 

" 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves 
from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not 
after the tradition which he received of us. 

"7. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow 
us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among 
you j 



MARK M. POMEROY. 215 

" 8. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught: 
but wrought with labor and travail, night and day, that 
we might not be chargeable to any of you. 

" 9. Not because we have not power, but to make 
ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. 

" 10. For even when we were with you this we com- 
manded you, that if any would not work neither should 
he eat. 

"11. For we hear that there are some which walk 
among you disorderly, working not at all, but are 
busy-bodies. 

' 12. Now, them that are such, we command and 
exhort, by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness 
they work, and eat their own bread. 

" 13. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. 

"14. And if any man obey not our word by this 
epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, 
that he may be ashamed. 

" 15. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish 
him as a brother." 

Now these brethren who walk disorderly are carpet- 
baggers down South, and the men who attempted to 
disturb this Democratic meeting. 

Now, I believe that there is a duty you owe to 
yourselves and to your children, and that duty you will 
find in the inspired writings, when it tells you not to 
walk with those that are disorderly. When it tells you 
that those who do not work shall not eat. And the 



210 LIFE OF 

non-laboring: ones are the bondholders of America — the 
ones protected by Republican legislation, those who 
demand gold from your earnings, gold from your 
pockets, gold from your children, and demand that 
your children be made slaves of those who don't work. 
Are you willing to make your children slaves ? (Cries 
of 'No, no, no!') Have you no love for your homes? 
(Cries of ' Yes, yes !') If you are willing to benefit the 
political tricksters who have lied to you, toyed with 
your liberties, trampled your interests under the.ir feet ; 
if you care not for yourself, in God's name, my fellow- 
countrymen, young men, and workingmen, have some 
mercy upon the children of America! And don't, in 
behalf of these children, do not, I beg of you, make 
them slaves to an aristocracy, slaves to the bondholders, 
that are growing richer and richer, year after year, at 
your expense, and who are educating their children to 
look with contempt upon the children of laborers of 
America. For your attention to-night, for your gen- 
erous welcome that you have given me, citizens, I in 
days of boyish poverty knew, please accep t my sin- 
cere, earnest, heartfelt thanks. Good-night. (Immense 
cheering." 



MARK M. POMEKOY. 217 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Specimens of Mr. Pomeroy's miscellaneous writings 

The Pkayer of the Widow.— Beside a grave knelt 
a young widow, not long since, in a quiet town in the 
State of Pennsylvania. By the foot of the little < home' 
where slept her husband, a child lay, innocent and ig- 
norant of its mother's sorrow. Curiosity excited us, 
and we approached, to hear her, in broken words, with 
hands clasped and upheld, face upturned and dishev- 
elled hair, pray as follows. The first of the prayer 
we did not hear ; the close was this : 

" And, Father in Heaven, I loved him. He was all 
the world to me. He loved me— he held my head so 
close to his heart— he cared for me so tenderly. But I 
let him go when his country called, for it was to save 
his country they told me. And oh ! my Father in 
Heaven, how I watched and waited for him— how I 
prayed for his safe return ! But Thy will was done, and 
he was taken from me. And with him went to 'save 
his country my brother. And he came home wounded, 
and then he died, and left a mourner like me. And she' 
died broken-hearted, and left me this little child to love 
as my own— as my own was denied me. And oh ! 

10 



218 LIFE OF 

Father in Heaven, help me to keep this charge — tell me 
how to care for it — show me how to rear it and make it 
good. And give me — oh ! give me, Father in Heaven, 
strength to labor for it ; for we are all poor, and alone, 
and no one to care for us now. Oh ! give me health — 
give me strength to work for this dear one, for if I, too, 
fail, who will care for the little one now ?" 

And in the air we saw, over her, the spectre of her 
loved and lost ; and this is what he told her, or tried to : 

" Ah, my poor wife, pray on. Pray to God, for none 
other in power will hear your prayer. I was taken 
from you — I lost an arm in battle — a leg in the same — 
I suffered in hospital — I died and left you at the mercy 
of those who fooled me. Yes, pray to God ! He will 
hear you ; but those who murdered me — who are rob- 
bing you — who hold a mortgage on that little one — 
they will hear nothing unless it has the chink and clink 
of gold. The country to them is nothing. The suffer- 
ings of soldiers who fought while they stole is nothing 
to these. The agony of those who mourn is nothing. 
All they want is the gold. And for this, for them, I died ! 
And for them I left you in poverty ! For them I gave 
my life and your heart ! 'Twas to enrich them and 
make a slave of that little one I died ! Yes, pray to 
God, for none other in power will help you !" 

Editing a Newspaper. — It is fun ! All you have 
to do in New York, as elsewhere, is to nail up a sign 



MARK M. POMEEOY. 219 

and go it. Editors are as plenty as whiskey bottles in 
Grant's wigwam ! So many eminent roosters come for- 
ward with advice. Advice is good. That is, when we 
have enough of it. We lack advisers — a few more 
wanted. Apply to the devil, or next oldest apprentice. 
Come early and stay late, and bring your advice. We 
have had a few of those already. There are so many 
men who know so much — just struck 'em! If in luck, 
they may know more. 

They all wish us to succeed, and know just how we 
can do it. Kind roosters — our pot of thanks for them is 
red hot. Experience having proved that we cannot edit 
a paper, or give it circulation, it is proposed to teach us. 
Christ never had more lepers to heal than we have emi- 
nent roosters to give us advice, and who know just what 
is needed to make The Democrat paper a success. One 
red hot delegate says, " Give 'em more hell !" Another 
long-headed rooster says, " Rip it into old Greeley /" 
Please excuse us — he don't wish us to ! Another old 
cove, with moss on his back, calls to say we are an injury 
to the party, and advises us to go slow, and put in more 
about the Monroe doctrine ! Here comes a loose king, 
bald with the head knocked off, who brings twenty 
pages of foolscap for us to publish, defending him in a 
private quarrel originating between two hired girls. 

Another moral dispenser wishes us to insert his article 
every day proving that the Constitution was intended 
by the consolidated commonwealths to protect the natu- 



220 LIFE OF 

ral contested elongations of the organic laws of the 
patriarchs of our present form of government, originat- 
ing with Juvitts Jieuvius Domesticulus, as exemplified 
by Ovid in the reign of Charlemagne, and based upon 
the normal elements of a great fundamental principle 
according to Dryden, as set forth by Josephus in book 
ninety-five, to which, and the preceding volumes, the 
reader is referred. We send him out upon the World 
rejoicing ! 

Another man of genius comes in with an article cheap 
at eighty-seven dollars, in which he proves that if the 
steamer Merrimac had been erected on the plan adopted 
by -AW/?, the unholy conflict lately in fashion, would 
not have terminated the day it did. Referred to one of 
the assistant editors who has gone to the country. 

One man wants to furnish a column a day for two 
years on the legal rate of interest in Utah. Another 
statesman wishes us to give a three-column puff for a 
personal friend of his who sent in a bottle of peppermint 
essence when his Aunt Jerulia had the hooping distem- 
per. Another man, who don't know enough to catch a 
decent cold, stops to tell us that an article in the paper 
five weeks ago will injure us if rejected. Another man 
comes in to say he is exceeding glad we are succeeding, 
and then wants to borrow a dollar till he goes home. 
One wants more poetry— -another more fun — another 
more statistics — another wants more about Mrs. Lin- 
coln. Another man comes in with a five-column dilu- 



MARK M. POMEROY. 221 

tion of one of our last month's editorials, and says it 
would be good policy, now that the people demand it, 
to say something about United States bonds. 

Another man with kid gloves comes in to say, " It 
won't do, sir — it won't do, by ; it won't do to at- 
tack the moneyed men of the country — the country, sir ! 
We'll not take your paper — your paper, sir ! We won't 
advertise with you, sir ! You'll fail and burst up, sir, if 
you intend to advocate the cause of the fools who know 
nothing about finances — about finances sir !" Just so, 
Judge. 

And so they come, day after day — old men and young 
men, smart men and fools. Men who can write, and 
men who cannot. Nine-tenths of them with an axe to 
grind— all with advice. In two weeks we have had 
over a hundred distinct lines of policy marked out for 
us, and no two alike. And we'll follow them all— when 
success has become irksome, and we wish to make a fool 
of ourself, and fail. Some of our advisers know so 
much, we wonder they don't run for President, or start 
a cat-skin tannery out in the woods ! 

Meanwhile, send in the advice. Deliver all large 
packages at the back-door, and mark the heaviest, 
"C. O.D.," which, being interpreted, means: Cshtay 

Out Doors. 

Youno- men, if vou are in need of advice, hire out for 

an editor ! 



222 LIFE OF 



SATURDAY NIGHT. 



Young men and workingmen of the great cities — ■ 
Fathers, husbands, and lovers — will you sit with us to- 
night — this Saturday night, and talk with us, your 
friend ? The labors of the week are ended. The little 
tin-pail which so oft has accompanied you to the places 
of toil, sits in its place — the home ones so dear to you 
are indeed glad Saturday night, the most blessed of all 
God's earthly nights, has come again. 

We are weary. Hours of toil and tension of brain — 
hours of severe mental labor have for years made us 
long for this, best night of all the week to us. As we 
have worked through the week, we can rest, muse, and 
think now ; we can all leave the work-room behind and 
rest, and tell the dear one of our heart, and the loved ones 
of the household, that we love them, and with them to- 
night shall rest. - 

Throw care to the winds. Gather the loved ones 
about you. Tell the wife who for days, w r eeks, months 
or years, has shared more of your troubles than of your 
joys, that you love her as in the days agone. And you 
will see her face light up with the same smile which 
so crazed your heart once — will see the love-light in her 
eye, and out to each will swell the heart as in days long 
since. 

Gather the little one, or the little ones, about you. 
Unbend from business. Romp with the home ones. 



MARK M. POMEROY. 223 

Men should not be -statues, never bending, always cold 
and forbidding. Down from your assumed dignity, and 
be a true, noble-hearted man. Draw her you love to 
your heart. Look into her eyes — go down into their 
wondrous depths— remember it is intolerable selfishness 
which strangles so many hearts ; be good, kind, loving, 
happy. 

All the week she has toiled and waited for to-nioht. 
Do not disappoint her now, and your home will be 
happier each coming week. Her task is harder yet than 
yours, for the walls of a house, no matter how large, 
are not like the walls of a city. Perhaps the bloom of 
youth, the silent eloquence of the eye, the loved presence 
are not there as once. Then, workingman and brother, 
see if you cannot call them back; for you are the man — 
she is but the patient, toiling, trusting, loving woman, 
who would die for you and your love. 

Are you going out ? 

Do not go alone. Take your home ones witli you. 
Give them a treat to-night. If you have saved only 
enough for your own gratification, save it and stay at 
home. If you cannot take her and them to a place of 
amusement, walk the streets and see the beautiful, or 
throw off your coat and romp in the parlor or sitting- 
room of mansion or shanty, as the case may be. Give 
this night to your family and you will be a better, 
happier man. 

We love the laborers of America. We love the work- 



224 LIFE OF 

ingnien enough to speak truth to them, for we would 
make their homes happier, their labor less, their enjoy- 
ments more — their eternity brighter. And this we tell 
them : 

Save your earnings. Do not squander it in haunts 
of vice and dens of degradation. Ten dimes saved will 
make a dollar. The dollar will buy shoes for the little 
one — a keepsake for the wife — a book for her to read 
when tired and weary with watching for your coming — 
a picture for you both to look at, as it adds beauty to 
your room. Save the dollar you are tempted to spend 
foolishly. Beautify your home rather than some gilded 
saloon. Try and be better, more noble, manly, and 
more of a good husband and father. No man is so 
happy as he who does his duty. You owe a duty to 
yourself — a duty to your family. All the world is not 
to them what you are, or should be. Your home can be 
happier if you seek to make it so. Hours and dollars 
squandered are worse than lost. 

If your wife is not dressed as are those you visit, save 
your earnings and dress her so. If your home is not 
attractive, see if you cannot help make it so. Life is 
but a book full of littles woven together. It takes but 
little to make home happy. Little by little, day by 
day, week after week, see if you cannot add to it more 
attractions. Read this chapter, a workingman's sermon, 
to her you love, and see if she does not agree with us, 



MARK M. POMEKOY. ^ 225 

and will not agree to aid you to make you more happy. 
Seal the bargain with a kiss, and begin to-night. 

Do not squander your money in drink, for it weakens 
your brain and heart ; it makes a kiss nauseating to a 
woman who loves ; it robs you of the result of toil ; it 
makes you less a man. We would not dictate, but in 
kindness would say, drink is of no benefit. We wish 
to see workingmen protected, but they should first pro- 
tect themselves ! We are made heart-sick to see them 
over-taxed and over-worked to support an aristocracy 
that is exempt from taxation and at war upon their 
prosperity; we are pained to see them so careless of 
their earnings. We wish their homes, even if small, to 
be more beautiful, and to see them enjoying their homes 
and the society of their loved ones — if not every night, 
every night they can. The days are fading out— the 
furrows, are stealing over our faces — the muscle which 
now is wedded to toil is growing weaker ; and if we 
who would be happy will not try to be happy and to 
make our loved ones really so, then He who loves us all 
has given us in vain Saturday night. 

" Brick" Pomeroy. 



Brick Pomeroy keepeth a Horse ! — Nothing like it ! 

If you don't have, keep, hold, possess, and operate a 
horse you are nobody. Worse than a girl without rib- 
bons — a boy minus a moustache — a prayer without an 
amen. 

10* 



226 LIFE OF 

You can't be in style except you keep a horse — darn 
the expense. That is the stamp on fashion — a horse, 
rearibus cum go-em ! Smith goes without life insurance 
to keep a horse and be in style. Jones keeps a trotting- 
horse and sulky, and wears linen pants all winter. 
Blefe keeps a saddle-horse, rather than send his children 
to school. White keeps a roadster rather than hear his 
wife thumping on a piano. Everybody keeps one, so I 
wanted one. Black told me there was nothing like it. 
Said he, one day as I rode to dinner with him : 

" You see, Brick, there is nothing like a horse. It 
don't cost anything to keep one, and they are so con- 
venient. All you have to do is to rent a little stable, 
buy a harness, carriage, robes, and a horse, hire a cheap 
boy to care for him, and then you can ride to your 
place of business, or, if you wish exercise, take care of 
him yourself. It don't cost much — a horse don't eat 
much ! And then you can ride out in the morning or 
evening — take a friend, go and come to dinner quick, 
and if you have an errand to do, there is your horse all 
ready. 

And I went to a sale stable and gave a man five dol- 
lars to find me one. He did. I bought him, a beautiful 
creature, seven hands high, fifteen years old, gentle as a 
lamb, fleet as the steeds of Arabia, and easy to keep as 
a poodle dog. He was a white chap, well broke, could 
trot, pace, gallop, rack, canter, amble, and walk — could 
stand on his two fore legs, or his hind two legs, or his 



MARK M. TOMEROY. 227 

four fore and hind legs, either or neither end up, and 
then roll over, and get up or not as he wished to. 

Just the horse for me. Was good under a saddle, in 
harness or stable. I bought him. Price three hundred 
dollars — got him at a bargain ; owner had just died, 
and the widow did not care to go in company except in 
mourning, and white is no mourning, you know. 

I sold my watch and Jerulia's old jewelry for a hun- 
dred dollars, borrowed at the bank a hundred more, and 
gave a mortgage on my house as security, and then 
gave my note for another hundred, secured by mort- 
gage on the horse, and at last owned a beauty of an 
equine. Then I sold the piano under promise of getting 
a new one, and bought a buggy, sold the cow for a har- 
ness — for cows are not neat, you know — and run in debt 
at a harness store for a whip, blanket, robes, brushes, 
etc., till at last I owned a complete rig. 

I never had fun before. Not beW able to hire a 
boy, I took care of the horse. Got up at four o'clock, 
curried him, rubbed him with wads of hay, old cloths 
and brushes, fed him oats, hay, salt and saltpetre, 
anointed his tail and mane to keep the hair on, led him 
to the blacksmith shop once a week, blistered my hands 
every day cleaning him, carried him water, and called 
him pet names till he loved me like a mule ! 

Had lots of fun, and such exercise ! Never worked 
so hard before in all my born or unborn days. Never 
did so much for fun ! Once I was sick a month, and 



228 LIFE OF 

Jerulia had to take care of him. She loved me or 
would not have done it. One day he playfully pro- 
truded his left hind foot into Jerulia's face, cutting an 
ugly hole in her cheek and cracking five teeth out of 
place. I had the laugh on Jerulia then ! Once he 
playfully bit three inches of scalp from the top of my 
head ! I amused him about twenty minutes with an 
old fork handle ! Better than dumb-bells for enlarging 
muscle ! 

And it was so nice to have a horse ! I could take 
Jones, Smith, and Brown to their meals, and have 
something to pay taxes on. And it was so nice to keep 
a horse to lend your neighbors. One time our minister 
borrowed the horse and buggy to visit his aunt over in 
Pinville, ninety miles away. He went with his wife and 
four children in the buggy, with a trunk strapped on 
behind for the children to sit on. Was gone a week. 
It didn't cost but sixty dollars to repair horse, harness, 
and buggy. 

Then one of the boys wanted the rig to go out girling. 
He drove twenty miles in eighty minutes, to let his Ma- 
tilda see how fast he could go. The horse was a little 
stiff for a month after that, but fifty dollars' worth of 
liniment cured him, or nearly. 

I like exercise, and this horse gave it to me. Once I 
left him unhitched before the office for a minute. He 
saw something and started. Ran over an old woman 
and a calf. Broke the calf of the old woman, and I had 



MARK M. POMEROY. 229 

to carry her to a drug-store and pay damages. Ran 
over a calf, upset the buggy and irritated the dash 
board and one wheel quite much. He broke loose and 
ran playfully six miles on the prairie. I caught him in 
five hours, and now wear a truss. Playful animal ! 

Another time I went out to ride with a niece of my 
first uncle's fourth wife. She wanted to see the grave- 
yard. We rode five miles out in the woods. I had 
every confidence in that horse, dropped the lines in 
order to do something, read a newspaper I think, and 
just as the niece of my first uncle's fourth wife squealed 
out sort of tickledly, the horse ran gently against a tree 
and we both got out. The horse went on, and so did I, 
but I ran a mile before I caught him. Lost my way in 
the woods and never saw the niece of my first" uncle's 
fourth wife, nor the buggy again ! 

I like a horse. It costs nothing to keep one! If you 
have a five minutes' walk it is easier to -clean off, hitch 
up, water, and drive your horse, unless the buggy be 
broken, or harness out of order. And it don't cost 
much ! We had white su^ar in the house once, 
and dessert after dinner twice this year ! And I have 
stopped all these foolish ladies' magazines and picture- 
books, and Jerulia now stays at home like a sensible 
woman. Can't afford to gratify all these little whims ! 

And it is such fun to see him play ! Once he kicked 
the frontispiece of the buggy in, and I let him run in 
the yard after admonishing him half an hour with a 



230 LIFE OF MARK M. POMEROY. 

broken thill. He likes out-door play. He ran over a 
hencoop and killed the old hen, leaving nine orphan 
children for the cat to eat ! Then he left his private' 
stamp on the bosom of two shirts, male and female, 
and masked his feet through a pair of sheets bleaching 
on the grass. And he knocked a ladder down, with 
the end through the parlor-window, kicked the dust out 
of the flower-beds and scared thunder out of the twins 
who were sleeping on the grass under a plum-tree. 
Playful animal ! so full of life ! 

I have had him five months, and he has not cost over 
nine hundred dollars nor given me over two hundred 
miles extra travel. I have been offered nineteen dollars 
for him, and if any poor man wants to take style and 
have something to care for which will cost him nothing, 
he can have him. Address, for two hours, 

Horsetally thine, 

" Brick" Pomeroy. 




« 



There is a kind of physiognomy in '-he titlei 
of books no less than in the J ices of 
men, by which a skilful observer 
will know as well what to ex- 
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other" — Butler. 



M& 



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